Piquet can’t really defend himself

Nelson Piquet, the reigning world champion, pictured above in the cockpit of his Gordon Murray-designed Brabham-BMW BT 53, is ready to take to the track during the 1984 Formula 1 season.

At the start of the 1984 season, the new rules limiting the capacity of the tanks to 220 liters seemed to favour the 4-cylinder BMW against the 6-cylinder engines equipping the competition, which were theoretically more fuel-intensive, and so Nelson Piquet was the favorite.

The Brazilian was nevertheless quickly disillusioned as the season was outrageously dominated by the McLaren MP4-2 powered by the TAG Porsche engine and driven by Niki Lauda and Alain Prost, who together won 12 of the 16 rounds of the championship.

The BMW engine that equipped Nelson Piquet’s Brabham BT 53, seconded by Teo Fabi (but also by Corrado Fabi and for a one-off appearance, by Manfred Winckelhock), was certainly powerful, up to 900 horsepower in qualifying, but not reliable enough, and the Brazilian only won two Grand Prix, in Canada and Detroit, and had to settle for fifth place in the final standings of the 1984 championship.

Picture below: Nelson Piquet and Paul Rosche, BMW’s brilliant engine guru, probably discuss drivability, reliability and consumption of their engine.