Initially Sir Jack Brabham's son Gary Brabham was signed to drive with Franco Scapini hired as test driver. When Brabham failed to pre-qualify twice he left the team for good, as the car had coasted to a halt after 400 yards with the mechanics on strike revealing they never put oil in the engine during his second event in Brazil. Brabham later stated that the car did not have a functioning tachometer in either of the pre-qualifying sessions, and that the team did not possess a tyre pressure gauge, having to borrow one from the EuroBrun team. He also made efforts to persuade the team to switch to a Judd CV V8 engine, but was unsuccessful.