In 1971, Jack Brabham sold his share of the team to co-owner and designer Ron Tauranac.

[3] Hill finished tenth at Holland[4] and retired at the French Grand Prix with a broken oil pipe.

Hill's fifth place at the Austrian Grand Prix did not count towards the final points total as Schenken finished third.

At the end of the year, Tauranac, an engineer by choice, started to feel his Formula One budget of £100,000 was a risk he could not afford to take on his own and searched around for an experienced business partner.

[12] He sold Brabham for £100,000 at the end of the year to Bernie Ecclestone, former manager of Jochen Rindt and former owner of Connaught Engineering.

Ecclestone said, "In retrospect, the relationship was never going to work", noting that "[Ron Tauranac and I] both took the view: 'Please be reasonable, do this my way'".

For Belgium, Brabham entered a third car for Brazilian Wilson Fittipaldi, but he retired with a broken gearbox.

(key)(results in bold indicate pole position) ^1 This total includes points scored by the Brabham BT33.