Jack Brabham sold the team to Ecclestone in 1972 after winning double championships in 1966 and 1967. Ecclestone, who would later become responsible for administering the commercial aspects of Formula One globally, used Brabham as the vehicle through which he built his influence in the sport. He hired Gordon Murray as chief designer, a partnership that would prove highly productive.
Under Murray, Brabham pioneered several technical developments. The team introduced carbon brakes to Formula One in 1976 and later developed hydropneumatic suspension and reintroduced in-race refuelling — tactics that became central to their championship campaigns.
The team's famous "fan car," the Brabham BT46B, ran at the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix. Its rear-mounted fan, ostensibly for cooling but primarily generating ground effect by evacuating air from beneath the car, allowed Niki Lauda to win the race with dominant pace. The car was withdrawn immediately afterwards amid protests, and it remains the only car to win its sole race in Formula One.
The team ended the customer car business to focus exclusively on their own racing program. Their fortunes turned with the arrival of Nelson Piquet, who drove the ground-effect Brabham BT49 to win the 1981 World Drivers' Championship by a single point over Carlos Reutemann in a Williams. The BT49C variant used a clever hydropneumatic suspension system designed by Murray that lowered the car at speed while appearing to comply with the new minimum ride-height regulations — a sophisticated technical loophole that other teams soon tried to replicate.
In 1983, Piquet became the first driver to win a championship with a turbocharged car, driving the Brabham BT52 powered by BMW's M12 straight-four engine. The BT52 took four victories that season in a title battle that extended to the final race. Piquet's second title with Brabham came in a transformed technical environment, with turbo engines reshaping Formula One's competitive order.
Ecclestone's growing involvement in managing Formula One's commercial rights — he had become the dominant force in negotiations between teams, circuits, and broadcasters — reduced his focus on Brabham's competitiveness. Piquet left for Williams after 1985. Ecclestone sold the team in 1988.
The team's new owner, Japanese engineering firm Middlebridge, failed to sustain the operation. Midway through the 1992 season, Brabham collapsed financially following Middlebridge's failure to service loan repayments, and the team was investigated for fraud. The historic Brabham name left the Formula One grid at that point after more than thirty years of competition.
Brabham's Ecclestone era produced two of the sport's most technically inventive championship campaigns. The fan car remains one of Formula One's most debated what-ifs. Gordon Murray went on to design the McLaren MP4/4, considered one of the most dominant cars in the sport's history, before later creating the McLaren F1 road car. Ecclestone's commercial acumen, developed through Brabham, gave him the leverage to build the Formula One television and rights empire that controlled the sport for four decades.