It was driven by Andrea de Cesaris, Riccardo Patrese and Stefano Modena; both de Cesaris and Patrese scored a 3rd place driving the BT56.

The car was powered by the straight 4 turbocharged BMW engine and raced on Goodyear tyres.

Brabham finished 8th in the 1987 Constructors' Championship with 10 points scored.

The BT56 was not a very competitive car; although it was quicker than some others (Patrese ran as high as second before retiring at the San Marino Grand Prix that year) it was nowhere near as competitive as the Williams, McLaren, Ferrari or Lotus cars that year.

Although he had a bad reputation for crashing, most of his retirements were due to mechanical failures.