Who was the first Australian driver to win the F1 world championship? John Arthur Brabham.

He was nicknamed “Black Jack”, “Chatty Jack by those who knew him, due to his scarce loquacity. He chose mechanics for his university studies, which he attended at night because he worked during the day. His career started with the “midget” races and he won the speedway title for three consecutive years. In 1955 he moved to England to continue with his racing career. He met John Cooper due to the set-up of his Cooper-Alta and they established an intense collaboration.

He had his first F1 experience with the Cooper T40 and Maserati 250F, then the results started to come. At the Monaco GP, he was in third place, when his Cooper F2 stooped, he used the descent and he pushed the car to the finish line, completing in fourth place, that was 1957. In 1958 he won, partnering with Moss in the 1000km race at the Nürburgring. In 1959, he debuted with a victory in Monaco, which was a premonition for the grand finale: the first world championship with a Cooper-Climax.

The superiority of Jack and the Cooper were confirmed also on the following year, with five consecutive victories and he won his second world championship. He was a man of many talents, who debuted as a constructor in 1962 and, four years later, won his third world championship, the first for a constructor driver and for his team, with the BT Brabham/Tauranac one-seater cars. In 1967, the Brabham team won another world championship, with Hulme. In 1970 he retired from the races, with his last GP in Mexico, and he also left the team to Tauranac.