The teams cars were driven by Italian Stefano Modena and the 1988 World Sportscar Champion, the returning Martin Brundle.

After missing the entire 1988 season, the first time since 1961 that the Brabham name wasn't on the F1 grid as a constructor, the team was forced into pre-qualifying for 1989, largely thanks to the increased entry to Formula One that year in light of the new regulations that banned the powerful, but expensive, turbocharged engines.

Both Brundle and Modena proved very competitive at the Monaco Grand Prix, running behind the all-conquering McLaren-Honda cars of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

Brundle was running a fine third late in the race when he was forced to pit to replace a dead battery, ultimately finishing sixth (unlike most other cars in the field, the BT58 had its battery under the driver's seat and not behind the driver's head, meaning Brundle had to vacate the car in the pits for the team to replace it).

However, during the last half of the season as Formula One moved to faster circuits such as Silverstone, Hockenheim and Monza, the BT58's lack of straight line speed, and Pirelli's less than competitive race tyres, saw that results were harder to come by, though Brundle did defy the odds by finishing sixth at Monza after Modena was excluded during qualifying when his car weighed in under the legal limit.