This power allowed Piquet to record the fastest speed trap of the 1984 season when he clocked 325 km/h (202 mph) on the 1 km long straight at the old Kyalami circuit during qualifying for Round 2 of the championship in South Africa.

Like all other cars in Formula One in 1984, the rear wings featured smaller winglets on each side of the end plates for extra downforce pioneered by Ferrari in 1983.

The other two were in North America as Teo missed both the Canadian and Dallas Grands Prix while racing at Portland and Cleveland respectively.

The reason Brabham ended up with the Fabi brothers sharing the drive was reportedly due to the team's major sponsor, Italian dairy company Parmalat, wanting to maintain an Italian driver alongside Piquet as Riccardo Patrese had left the team for Alfa Romeo.

Team boss Bernie Ecclestone settled on Teo Fabi as the best Italian available, but due to his commitments in Champ Car, the arrangement was made to employ the brothers (Corrado had driven for Osella in 1983).