Simtek (Simulation Technology) was an engineering consultancy firm and Formula One racing team. The F1 engineering consultancy arm, Simtek Research, was founded in 1989 by Max Mosley and Nick Wirth. It originally was involved in many areas of Formula One, including wind tunnel construction and chassis building for third parties. Simtek Grand Prix, the racing team, launched in 1993 and competed in the 1994 and 1995 seasons achieving a best result of ninth place. With large debts and a lack of sponsorship money, Simtek went into voluntary liquidation in June 1995.

Simtek Research[link]

Simtek Research was founded in August 1989 by Nick Wirth and Max Mosley aiming to provide a cost-effective design, research and development service to the highest possible standards.^[1] Initially working out of an office in Wirth's home, the company grew quickly and moved to its own facility on the Acres Industrial Estate in Banbury, Oxfordshire featuring a windtunnel. Simtek's clients included the FIA, F1 constructors Ligier and numerous Formula 3000 and Indycar teams.

In 1990 Simtek designed a Formula One car for BMW who were making plans to found a works team. The project was aborted, and BMW instead entered the German Touring Car Championship in 1991, the BMW 3-series cars being run by Simtek engineers. The BMW F1 car design was revived, updated and sold to Andrea Moda Formula to compete in the 1992 season. In 1992, after becoming president of the FIA, Mosley sold his share in Simtek to Wirth.

In 1993, Simtek were commissioned to design a car for the new Bravo Grand Prix team, however following the sudden death of Bravo's project backer, Jean Francois Mosnier, the plans were scrapped.

Formula One[link]

1994[link]

In August 1993, Nick Wirth took the decision to enter Formula One with his own team for the 1994 season. Triple world champion Jack Brabham became a shareholder in Simtek Grand Prix, and his son David Brabham was signed as a driver before the end of 1993.^[2] Andrea de Cesaris and Gil de Ferran, both carrying sponsorship money, were initially considered for the second seat but negotiations broke down. Frenchman Jean-Marc Gounon was also considered, but already had commitments for the start of the season so eventually 31-year-old F1 rookie Roland Ratzenberger took the place. Charlie Moody, a former Leyton House manager, was appointed Simtek's team manager.^[3]

Roland Ratzenberger's Simtek at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, prior to his fatal accident.

The company secured customer Ford HB V8 engines from Cosworth, and prior to the season starting, MTV Europe stepped in as title sponsors. Wirth's initial design for the 1994 race car included active suspension, a technology used by Williams to win both the drivers and constructors championships in 1992 and 1993. However, active suspension was banned prior to the start of the 1994 season, and so Simtek were forced to revert to a more conservative design, named the S941. This design was heavy, initially included a fully manual gearbox compared to the semi-automatics being used by the frontrunning teams and the Ford HB engine was less powerful than the engines being used by the frontrunners. The company employed 35 people, the least amount of any team competing in Formula One during 1994, and only 10% of the number employed by Scuderia Ferrari.^[4]

These deficits showed at the first race of the 1994 season. Brabham qualified in 26th and last place while Ratzenberger failed to qualify. Brabham finished the race 12th, but all cars behind him retired. The next race saw both Simteks qualifying but again occupying the back of the grid. Brabham retired early with an electrical failure, and Ratzenberger finished 11th, last of the cars still running.

The next round was the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. During the Saturday qualifying session, Ratzenberger left the track during an out-lap dislodging his front wing. After rejoining the track, Ratzenberger decided the car wasn't damaged, and eager to ensure qualification for the race the next day began a flying lap. At the Villeneuve curva while traveling at 190 mph (306 km/h) the front wing failed, causing Ratzenberger to lose control and the car crashed into a concrete wall. Ratzenberger suffered a basal skull fracture, and was killed instantly. Traditionally, the team would have withdrawn from the event, however David Brabham decided to race on, in tribute to Ratzenberger and in order to raise the morale of a devastated Simtek team. A time posted earlier in the qualifying session by Ratzenberger would have given him the 26th position on the grid. His death, the first at a Grand Prix weekend for 12 years, was overshadowed by the death of three-times world champion Ayrton Senna during the race the following day.

Brabham's decision to continue racing, in part resulted in Simtek making a collective decision to continue racing and "For Roland" was painted on the airbox of the car, to show their reason for continuing.^[6] The team only had one chassis to enter at the Monaco Grand Prix, and before the start, a minute's silence was held in memory of Senna and Ratzenberger with the second grid slot painted with the Austrian flag. In Spain, Andrea Montermini drove for the team, but during the practice session crashed heavily. He escaped with only a broken toe and cracked left heel but was obviously unable to race and his Simtek chassis was wrecked. After another one car entry in Canada, Jean-Marc Gounon became available to the team for the French Grand Prix. He finished the race ninth, the team's best finish of the season, in part down to high attrition but finishing ahead of Mark Blundell's Tyrrell which was still running. Both cars qualified for all the remaining Grands Prix, ahead of the Pacifics, and occasionally also Lotus and Larrousse. Brabham qualifed in 21st for the Belgian Grand Prix, ahead of a Lotus, Larrousse, Footwork and Tyrrell car.

Three races before the end of the season, Domenico Schiattarella took over Gounon's race seat finishing 19th. He was replaced for the penultimate round in Japan by another pay driver Taki Inoue, however his race ended after three laps when he crashed into the pit wall. Schiattarella was reinstated for the final round at Adelaide however both Simtek's retired from the race with technical problems.

After a challenging debut season, the team finished with no world championship points but convinced that Simtek could do better, Wirth decided to continue the Grand Prix programme.

1995[link]

MTV Europe's sponsorship commitment was reduced for the 1995 season, but they remained title sponsors to the team. Rather than money, MTV paid Simtek with airtime on their television channel. This airtime was then sold by Simtek to its other sponsors for them to show commercials.^[7] Cosworth again supplied engines to the team, with the more up-to-date Ford ED. These were combined with ex-Benetton gearboxes and Wirth designed a new chassis, the S951.

David Brabham was made an offer by BMW to race in the British Touring Car Championship, and accepted. He was replaced by Jos Verstappen, who was seeking more experience after an incident filled season at Benetton in 1994.^[8] The second seat was kept by Domenico Schiattarella for the first half of the season, while Hideki Noda paid a deposit to secure the place for the latter races.

Both cars retired from the opening round, but the second round in Argentina brought much promise. Verstappen qualified 14th for the race and moved up to sixth by the first pitstop. A slow pitstop dropped him down the order and then his gearbox failed the following lap. Schiattarella finished ninth, equaling the team's best finish the previous season. Verstappen's gearbox also failed at the next race in San Marino. Schiattarella retired with suspension failure. Spain brought 12th and 15th placed finishes for the team, but there were bigger problems behind the scenes. In the 18 months the team had been in existence, they had amassed £6 million worth of debt.^[9]

At Monaco, neither driver completed a lap of the race due to another gearbox failure on Verstappen's car, and the marshals failing to recover Schiattarella's car after the first aborted race start. Following the race Wirth wrote, in one of his regular Usenet newsgroup postings, that "a major new backer of the team, with whom I had signed a contract before the season, has finally pulled out and left a large hole in our finances".^[10] Wirth frantically tried to convince potential sponsors to come forward, threatening to shut down the team if none did so.^[11] In the event a sponsor could be found, existing sponsors MTV, Russell Athletic and Korean Air pledged to increase their own sponsorship commitments. The team did not appear at the Canadian Grand Prix, but were not fined by the sports commercial rights holders, FOM, for their absence. The CEO of FOM, Bernie Ecclestone agreed that the team entered the championship intending to compete in 16 races and as the championship was extended to 17, they were permitted to miss one race.

Negotiations with the potential backers and sponsors failed, and the companies that would pay for Hideki Noda to drive the Simtek were severely affected by the Kobe earthquake. Prior to the next race, Simtek Grand Prix went into voluntary liquidation and the receivers, Touche Ross, were called in.^[12] The collapse of the Formula One team also forced Simtek Research to declare itself bankrupt.^[13] In total, 48 jobs were lost and with the team unable to be sold as a going concern, Simtek's assets were auctioned off.

Complete Formula One results[link]

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

References[link]

All Formula One race and championship results taken from the official Formula One website. Simtek Results 1994-1995.

External links[link]

• Team profile on F1 Rejects

Formula One portal

v t e Simtek Founders : Nick Wirth | Max Mosley Drivers: David Brabham | Roland Ratzenberger | Andrea Montermini | Domenico Schiattarella | Jean-Marc Gounon | Jos Verstappen | Taki Inoue Formula One cars: S941 | S951

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (June 2009)

David Brabham

David Brabham in 2007
Born	(1965-09-05) 5 September 1965 (age 46)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	Australian
Active years	1990, 1994
Teams	Brabham, Simtek
Races	30 (24 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First race	1990 San Marino Grand Prix
Last race	1994 Australian Grand Prix

David Brabham (born 5 September 1965) is an Australian racing driver and one of the most successful and experienced specialists in sports car racing. He has won three international Sports Car series and is one of four Australians to have won the Le Mans 24 Hour sports car race, winning the event in 2009. Brabham is the reigning American Le Mans Series champion and also won the title in 2009. He also competed in Formula One, racing for the Brabham and Simtek teams in 1990 and 1994 respectively. David is the youngest son of three-time Formula One world champion Sir Jack Brabham.

Early life[link]

Brabham, who was born in Wimbledon, London, spent his childhood in Australia. Despite his father's motor racing fame he took little interest in motor racing until after he left school. As a child he played the more accessible sport of soccer up until the age of twelve and then took up Australian rules football when the family moved to Sydney. Growing up, Sir Jack did not force David into racing, and it was only after discovering go-karts at 17, that he became enthusiastic enough to purchase a second-hand go-kart with his next-door neighbour and begin racing.

Motor racing career[link]

Early career[link]

Brabham's professional racing career began in Australia in 1983, racing karts for two years, after which he moved into the Ford Laser "one make" series for 1985. In 1986 he switched to Formula Ford 1600 and subsequently to Australian Formula 2, winning the 1987 Australian Drivers' Championship in that category. He also competed in the New Zealand Formula Atlantic series, the American Formula Atlantic series and in the South American Formula 3 Championship during the 1987 season.^[1] A move from Australia to Europe under sponsorship from Camel in 1989 saw him joining the Bowman team and winning the British Formula Three Championship.

Formula One career[link]

Brabham's break into Formula One with the Brabham team met with little success. In 14 races he only managed to qualify the uncompetitive Judd-engined car six times. This led to him being replaced at the end of the season. Brabham joined the Tom Walkinshaw Racing Jaguar team in 1991 and also in that year won the Spa 24 Hours for Nissan. Brabham won the 24 Hours of Daytona for Jaguar in 1992.

Brabham returned to Formula One in 1994 with the under-funded Simtek team who suffered the blow of the death of Roland Ratzenberger whilst in qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix. Traditionally the other team driver would withdraw in such a situation, but seeing the demoralisation around him, Brabham decided to race on, only to crash out after a suspension failure of his own. In Ratzenberger's memory the team made a collective decision to see out the season.

Touring Cars[link]

Brabham quit Formula One at the end of that year to begin touring car racing. 1995 in a BTCC BMW was not a success, but subsequent successes included winning the 1996 JGTC GT500 championship in McLaren F1 GTR (so far the only non-Japanese team car to win this), and the Bathurst 1000 in its Supertouring era in 1997 with brother Geoff.

He won the Professional Sports Car Championship in the United States with the Panoz racing team in 1998, and the 1999 Petit Le Mans race also with Panoz.

GT racing[link]

Brabham joined Sumo Power GT for the 2011 FIA GT1 World Championship, teaming with Jamie Campbell-Walter in a Nissan GT-R. The duo finished 10th in the driver's championship. He will join the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2012, driving a McLaren MP4-12C for United Autosports.

Le Mans racing[link]

Since 1999 he has been a regular in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), having raced for teams such as Panoz and Prodrive Ferrari 550 Maranello; he currently races an Acura ARX-02 for Highcroft Racing. He won the Sebring 12-hour race in 2005. In Australia, he has contested the Bathurst 24 Hour race and continued to make occasional appearances in the Bathurst 1000.

Brabham has won a total of 23 ALMS events across all 4 classes in the series. He is a two-time champion in the series, winning the LMP1 title in 2009 and LMP title in 2010.

In 2003 Brabham finished 2nd at the 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans driving for Bentley. In 2005 he started the first of 4 consecutive Le Mans starts racing Aston Martin DBR9's. He finished 9th overall and 3rd in the GT1 Class for Aston Martin Racing. At the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans, Brabham scored a 4th in the GT1 category (9th overall) driving for Russian Age Racing. Brabham won the GT1 class of the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans and again in the 2008 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a for Aston Martin Racing. Driving for Peugeot, he won the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans outright with co-drivers Alexander Wurz and Marc Gene.

Brabham won the 2009 and 2010 American Le Mans Series LMP championship, driving for Highcroft Racing. For 2012, he will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship in a JRM Racing Honda Performance Development ARX-03a.

Family[link]

Brabham's two older brothers Geoff and Gary also pursued motor racing careers. His wife Lisa (sister of Mike Thackwell) also raced and his nephew Matthew Brabham now races in junior Formulae.

Racing record[link]

Career summary[link]

Complete Formula One results[link]

(key)

Complete International Formula 3000 results[link]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete British Touring Car Championship results[link]

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GT1 World Championship results[link]

24 Hours of Le Mans results[link]

Year	Class	No	Tyres	Car	Team	Co-Drivers	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1992	C1	7	G	Toyota TS010 Toyota RV10 3.5L V10	Toyota Team Tom's	Geoff Lees Ukyo Katayama	192	DNF	DNF
1993	GT	50	D	Jaguar XJ220 Jaguar JV6 3.5L Turbo V6	TWR Jaguar Racing	John Nielsen David Coulthard	306	DSQ	DSQ
1996	GT1	34	M	McLaren F1 GTR BMW S70 6.1L V12	Gulf Racing GTC Racing	Pierre-Henri Raphanel Lindsay Owen-Jones	335	5th	4th
1997	GT1	55	G	Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8	David Price Racing	Perry McCarthy Doc Bundy	145	DNF	DNF
1998	GT1	45	M	Panoz Esperante GTR-1 Ford (Roush) 6.0L V8	Panoz Motorsports	Andy Wallace Jamie Davies	335	7th	7th
1999	LMP	12	M	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S Ford (Élan) 6.0L V8	Panoz Motorsports	Éric Bernard Butch Leitzinger	336	7th	6th
2000	LMP900	11	M	Panoz LMP-1 Roadster-S Élan 6L8 6.0L V8	Panoz Motorsports	Jan Magnussen Mario Andretti	315	15th	8th
2001	LMP900	12	M	Panoz LMP07 Élan (Zytek) 4.0L V8	Panoz Motorsports	Jan Magnussen Franck Lagorce	85	DNF	DNF
2002	LMP900	11	M	Panoz LMP01 Evo Élan 6L8 6.0L V8	Panoz Motor Sports	Jan Magnussen Bryan Herta	90	DNF	DNF
2003	LMGTP	8	M	Bentley Speed 8 Bentley 4.0L Turbo V8	Team Bentley	Mark Blundell Johnny Herbert	375	2nd	2nd
2004	LMP1	22	M	Zytek 04S Zytek ZG348 3.4L V8	Zytek Engineering, Ltd.	Andy Wallace Hayanari Shimoda	167	DNF	DNF
2005	GT1	59	M	Aston Martin DBR9 Aston Martin 6.0L V12	Aston Martin Racing	Stéphane Sarrazin Darren Turner	333	9th	3rd
2006	GT1	62	M	Aston Martin DBR9 Aston Martin 6.0L V12	Russian Age Racing Team Modena	Antonio García Nelson Piquet, Jr.	343	9th	4th
2007	GT1	009	M	Aston Martin DBR9 Aston Martin 6.0L V12	Aston Martin Racing	Darren Turner Rickard Rydell	343	5th	1st
2008	GT1	009	M	Aston Martin DBR9 Aston Martin 6.0L V12	Aston Martin Racing	Antonio García Darren Turner	344	13th	1st
2009	LMP1	9	M	Peugeot 908 HDi FAP Peugeot HDi 5.5L Turbo V12 (Diesel)	Peugeot Sport Total	Marc Gené Alexander Wurz	382	1st	1st
2010	LMP2	26	M	HPD ARX-01C HPD AL7R 3.4L V8	Highcroft Racing	Marino Franchitti Marco Werner	296	25th	9th

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: David Brabham

• David Brabham's official website
• Interactive David Brabham Statistics - compare David with other F1 drivers