Jack Brabham’s victory in Porto in 1963 almost enabled him to win his second F1 championship.

On August 14, 1960, Australian Jack Brabham moved closer to his second Formula 1 world title by winning in Portugal. It was his fifth consecutive victory in a remarkable series for this famous driver, who also enjoyed success as a constructor.

Mark Webber summed it up perfectly when he said that Sir Jack Brabham “showed us the way forward.” Few fans remember that the Australian legend was not only a two-time world champion behind the wheel, but also the first driver to win a title in a car he helped design.

In 1959, Brabham became the first Australian Formula 1 world champion, beating Britons Tony Brooks and Stirling Moss by remaining consistently fast at the wheel of the rear-engined Cooper T51, a machine that revolutionized the sport with its Climax L4 engine. The following season confirmed his dominance. In 1960, he won five of ten races, securing a second championship ahead of teammate Bruce McLaren and Moss. His winning streak began at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, continued with a triumph at Spa-Francorchamps—where a serious accident involving Moss eliminated a major rival—and was followed by victories at Reims and Silverstone.

This streak reached its peak on August 14 on the scorching Boavista street circuit in Porto. Starting in third position, Brabham had a six-point lead over McLaren, thanks to the agile but modestly powered Cooper T53. A slip on the tram tracks dropped him to eighth place, but he methodically worked his way back up the field, taking advantage of an accident involving John Surtees, who had hit a curb and crashed into bales of straw while in the lead. Brabham crossed the finish line a minute ahead of his teammate, claiming his fifth consecutive victory, a record for a single season, and adding eight points that virtually secured him the championship. McLaren's second place kept him within reach, but the chances of the best driver and car of the season failing to score any more points seemed slim. With two races to go, the British teams were already threatening to boycott the Italian Grand Prix due to controversy over the Monza circuit. In the United States, in the final race of the year, Brabham started in second position, but a fuel leak dropped him to seventh place before he recovered to finish just off the podium, behind McLaren. Cooper won the race, clinching the drivers' championship for Brabham and the constructors' championship for the British team for the second year in a row. Behind the scenes, 1960 also saw Brabham quietly lay the foundations for the Brabham Racing Organization with his lifelong friend, Ron Tauranac. Bolstered by his 1959 championship title, he was convinced he could do better by creating his own team. In 1962, he drove the BT series cars that bore his and Tauranac's initials, and after a few difficult years, he achieved his masterpiece in 1966: a third world title at the wheel of the BT-19. This victory at the French Grand Prix made him the first driver to win a race—and a championship—in a car of his own design, a feat that three-time champion Jackie Stewart later described as “never done and never doable.”