Mark Blundell

Mark Blundell

Nation:	United Kingdom
Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1991 USA Grand Prix
Last start:	1995 Australian Grand Prix
Constructors
1991  Brabham  • 1993  Ligier  • 1994  Tyrrell  • 1995  McLaren
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Cup tenth ( 1993 , 1995 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 61 - - -
World Cup points :	32
Podiums :	3
Leadership laps :	-

Mark Blundell (born April 8, 1966 in Barnet , Hertfordshire , England ) is a retired British automobile racing driver . He was active in Formula 1 , the Champ Car series and sports cars , among others .

Career

Beginnings in motorsport

His first motorsport involvement was motocross races at the age of 14. He was an instant success, soon became one of the best drivers in the UK and won several championships. In 1983, at 17, he switched to four wheels in the British Formula Ford . Again he was quickly successful and was second in both junior championships in the first season with 25 wins and 24 pole positions . The following year he won both the Esso British Formula Ford and the Snetterton Formula Ford 1600 . The following year he moved up to the better-powered Formula Ford 2000 and promptly won the BBC Grandstand series . He even returned to the Formula Ford 1600 EM , took pole position and finished fourth. In 1986 he won the European Championship in Formula Ford 2000 .

At this point, Blundell was planning to move up into international motorsport. He left out the traditional step, Formula 3 , and switched to TOMS-Toyota in Formula 3000 . Although his car was not very competitive, he had some promising successes and even celebrated victories. In 1987 he moved to the Lola - factory team . He also took part in some Formula 3 races.

The following year he got a Formula 1 test drive for the Williams team. In 1990 he ended his Formula 3000 career to concentrate on sports cars. In the same year he set a new course record at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and was the youngest driver in history to take pole position .

formula 1

Blundell made his debut at the United States Grand Prix in Phoenix in 1991 on a Brabham . He scored the first point in his eleventh race, the Belgian Grand Prix in Spa-Francorchamps . He also renewed his test contract with Williams. The following year he was not given a regular seat and instead became a test driver for McLaren . In parallel, drove Blundell again sportscar race and won with Peugeot , together with Derek Warwick and Yannick Dalmas , the 24 Hours of Le Mans .

In 1993 he returned to Formula 1 as a regular Ligier driver . At the Grand Prix of South Africa and Germany , he made it onto the podium in third place. For the 1994 season he moved to Tyrrell . His car was less competitive than last year, but he still managed to finish third in Spain . However, due to a lack of sponsor support, he had to resign his place at Tyrrell at the end of the season and signed again as a test driver with McLaren.

Mark Blundell in 1995 in a McLaren-Mercedes

After former world champion Nigel Mansell failed to fulfill his contract in the newly formed McLaren-Mercedes team for the 1995 season , Blundell got the vacant regular place next to the later double world champion Mika Häkkinen . He started from the fifth race ( Monaco Grand Prix ) in Mansell's MP4 / 10 with the No. 7, which he drove as a reserve driver in the first two races of the season. With 13 World Championship points, Blundell was tenth overall, but had to make way for the Scottish David Coulthard , who came from Williams, for 1996 . In the absence of alternatives, Blundell ended his Formula 1 career and switched to the American Champ Car series.

Champ Cars

Blundell signed a contract with the PacWest Racing Team. The former Formula 1 driver Maurício Gugelmin was his teammate there. Blundell finished third in the rookie rankings at the end of the year with three top six finishes at the Indy 500 , Detroit Grand Prix and Michigan International Speedway .

In 1997 Blundell drove racing victories in Portland , Toronto and Fontana and finished sixth in the championship. In the same year he was also voted British Driver of the Year . The 1998 season was less successful. In early 1999, Blundell suffered a serious accident. In 2000 he returned to PacWest for a final season. However, it was another disappointing season, he only got 18 points and finished 21st overall. This led to the separation from PacWest.

Sports car

Blundell returned to Europe to focus on sports cars again. He couldn't finish the Le Mans 24 Hours in an MG Lola.

He tested a Dale Coyne Champ Car to help Darren Manning prepare for his first Champ Car race in Britain and drove in the British round of the World Rally Championship .

In 2003 he was able to celebrate great success in sports cars. Together with Johnny Herbert and David Brabham , he finished second in the Le Mans 24 Hours with Bentley . He also finished third in the Sebring 12 Hours , as the best Bentley driver.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1989	Nissan Motorsports International	Nissan R89C	Julian Bailey	Martin Donnelly	failure	accident
1990	Nissan Motorsports Europe	Nissan R90CK	Julian Bailey	Gianfranco Brancatelli	failure	differential
1992	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 905B Evo 1 bis	Derek Warwick	Yannick Dalmas	Overall victory
1995	GTC Gulf Racing	McLaren F1 GTR	Ray Bellm	Maurizio Sandro Sala	Rank 4
2001	MG Sports & Racing Ltd.	MG-Lola EX257	Julian Bailey	Kevin McGarrity	failure	Oil leak
2002	MG Sports & Racing Ltd.	MG-Lola EX257	Julian Bailey	Kevin McGarrity	failure	malfunction
2003	Team Bentley	Bentley Speed ​​8	David Brabham	Johnny Herbert	Rank 2

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
2003	Team Bentley	Bentley Speed ​​8	Johnny Herbert	David Brabham	Rank 3

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
1989	Nissan Motorsports International	Nissan R89C	SUZ	DIJ	JAR	BRH	ONLY	DON	SPA	MEX
				15th	8th			3	3	12
1990	Nissan Motorsports International	Nissan R90CK	SUZ	MON	SIL	SPA	DIJ	ONLY	DON	MOT	MEX
				DNF	DNF	10	3	5	6th	2	2
1992	Peugeot Talbot Sport	Peugeot 905	MON	SIL	LEM	DON	SUZ	LIKE
					1

Web links

Commons : Mark Blundell  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Blundell's career statistics on Motorsportarchiv.de