In 1971, Jack Brabham sold his share of the team to co-owner and designer Ron Tauranac. Englishman Graham Hill was signed to drive the BT34 and Tauranac also signed Australian Tim Schenken to drive the older Brabham BT33. Tauranac designed the BT34, which was nicknamed the 'lobster claw', as derived from its twin radiators (claw) mounted ahead of the front wheels. Only one BT34 was built for Hill.
Brabham used the BT33 in the 1971 South African Grand Prix. The BT34 made its debut at Spain, and Hill retired with steering issues. The Englishman crashed at the Monaco Grand Prix. Hill finished tenth at Holland and retired at the French Grand Prix with a broken oil pipe. The start of Britain was a shambles, with a bungled flag drop causing a crash between Hill and Jackie Oliver (McLaren), for which Oliver was fined £50. Hill finished ninth at the German Grand Prix. Hill finished fifth at Austria and retired at the Italian Grand Prix with a broken gearbox. Hill crashed at a wet race in Canada. The Englishman finished seventh at the United States Grand Prix.
Brabham finished the season in ninth place in the Constructors' Championship, with five points, scored by Schenken in the Brabham BT33. Only a team's best place finish in any one race counted towards the constructors' championship. Hill's fifth place at the Austrian Grand Prix did not count towards the final points total as Schenken finished third.
At the end of the year, Tauranac, an engineer by choice, started to feel his Formula One budget of £100,000 was a risk he could not afford to take on his own and searched around for an experienced business partner. He sold Brabham for £100,000 at the end of the year to Bernie Ecclestone, former manager of Jochen Rindt and former owner of Connaught Engineering. Tauranac stayed on to design the cars and run the factory.
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