Martin Brundle

Martin Brundle

Nation:	United Kingdom
Formula 1 world championship
First start:	1984 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last start:	1996 Japanese Grand Prix
Constructors
1984–1986  Tyrrell  • 1987  Zakspeed  • 1988  Williams  • 1989/1991  Brabham  • 1992  Benetton  • 1993  Ligier  • 1994  McLaren  • 1995  Ligier  • 1996  Jordan
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Cup sixth ( 1992 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 158 - - -
World Cup points :	98
Podiums :	9
Leadership laps :	-

Martin John Brundle (born June 1, 1959 in King's Lynn , Norfolk , England ) is a British television commentator and former racing car driver . He reports live from Formula 1 for the British broadcaster Sky Sports .

Brundle started between 1984 and 1996 at 158 ​​Grand Prix in the Formula 1 World Championship, but he achieved his greatest successes in sports car races . He won the world championship there in 1988 and was victorious in the endurance classic in Le Mans in 1990 . Brundle's son Alex is also active as a racing driver.

Driver career

Brundle started his career at the age of 18 in the British Formula Ford . He quickly rose to Formula 3 and drove there in 1983 with the later Formula 1 world champion Ayrton Senna for the title, which he just lost. For the 1984 season, Brundle moved to Formula 1 , where he was teammate of the German Stefan Bellof at Team Tyrrell . In his seventh race in Detroit , Brundle was able to achieve a spectacular success when he finished second. However, the Tyrrell team and its drivers were disqualified at the end of the season due to allegations of technical manipulation and all results were withdrawn, so that this placement was invalid. For Brundle, the season ended prematurely two weeks after the race in Detroit after a serious accident in qualifying for the US Grand Prix in Dallas , in which he injured his feet, which has since caused him problems with braking. Since in the further course of the 1980s Brundle did not have any notable successes in Formula 1 because of the hardly competitive material at Tyrrell and Zakspeed , he took part in sports car races. There he won the world championship in 1988 and the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1990 , both in a Jaguar .

Martin Brundle in a Tyrrell 014 at the 1985 European Grand Prix

Back in Formula 1, Brundle got a cockpit at the later world championship team Benetton , where he became a teammate of Michael Schumacher , thanks to his sports car successes in the 1992 season . It was Brundle's most successful Formula 1 season: he was on the podium five times and came second behind his former opponent Ayrton Senna, his best individual result at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza . Despite the success, Brundle was clearly in the shadow of the later record world champion Schumacher, who finished third in the world championship with a victory, while Brundle took sixth place in the drivers' standings. Brundle's contract was not extended by Benetton team boss Flavio Briatore .

In 1993 Brundle started for Ligier and achieved impressive results in a solid car from the front midfield. He was third on the podium at the San Marino Grand Prix and finished seventh in the World Championship. When he was offered the vacated cockpit of Ayrton Senna for the then most successful team in Formula 1 history, McLaren , in the 1994 season , Brundle took it and became a teammate of the eventual world champion Mika Häkkinen . Once again, however, he was unable to demonstrate his skills with a top team and was clearly behind Häkkinen throughout the season. He achieved a remarkable success at the Monaco Grand Prix , which he finished second behind his former team-mate Michael Schumacher. At the end of the season Brundle lost his cockpit again and went back to Ligier for the 1995 season. There he was able to draw attention to himself again at the Belgian Grand Prix on the Spa-Francorchamps track, known as the driver's track , when he finished third in changing weather conditions.

Martin Brundle in a Le Mans Bentley, 2001

In 1996 Brundle played his last Formula 1 season for the Jordan team. Many technical failures faced bad starting positions and only eight championship points. Since Eddie Jordan no longer planned with him for the following season, Brundle ended his Formula 1 career. In total, he took part in over 160 Grand Prix races (158 starts) and was on the podium nine times. His best starting position was third place at the 1993 French Grand Prix in Magny-Cours . He did not achieve any lead kilometers or fastest race laps.

In 1997, Brundle returned to sports cars and started again for Nissan at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In 1998 and 1999 he repeated this for Toyota with the GT1. He also competed in the 2001 Bentley comeback at Le Mans. However , there was no further start, which was planned with his friend Mark Blundell in an Aston Martin . The two then drove together for the 2011 Daytona 24 Hours, where they finished fourth, on the same lap as the winner.

In 2015, as part of a Force India film day , Brundle took a seat in a Formula 1 car again after almost 19 years.

Further career

Brundle first became a commentator for the British TV station ITV Sport in 1997 and accompanied, u. a. temporarily together with Murray Walker , until 2008 the Formula 1 reporting. From 2009 to 2011 he worked in the same position for the BBC before moving to the pay-TV channel Sky, where he still works today.

In the meantime, Brundle was also a motorsport official (chairman of the British Racing Drivers' Club ) and manager of the former Scottish Formula 1 driver David Coulthard .

statistics

successes

• 1988: Sports car world champion in a Jaguar
• 1990: Winner of the Le Mans 24-hour race

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1987	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR8 LM	John Nielsen	Armin Hahne	failure	Cylinder overheated
1988	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR9 LM	John Nielsen		failure	Cylinder overheated
1990	Silk Cut Jaguar	Jaguar XJR12 LM	John Nielsen	Price Cobb	Overall victory 1
1997	Tom Walkinshaw Racing Nissan Motorsport	Nissan R390 GT1	Jörg Müller	Wayne Taylor	failure	accident
1998	Toyota Motorsport	Toyota GT-One	Emmanuel Collard	Eric Helary	failure	accident
1999	Toyota Motorsport	Toyota GT-One	Emmanuel Collard	Vincenzo Sospiri	failure	Tire damage
2001	Team Bentley	Bentley Exp Speed ​​8	Stéphane Ortelli	Guy Smith	failure	Fire
2012	Greaves Motorsport	Zytek ZS11N	Alex Brundle	Lucas Ordoñez	Rank 15

¹ After electrical problems in his original vehicle, Brundle switched to the later winning car and replaced Eliseo Salazar .

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1988	Castrol Jaguar Racing	Jaguar XJR-9D	John Nielsen	Raul Boesel	failure	Engine failure

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11
1985	jaguar	Jaguar XJR-6	MUG	MON	SIL	LEM	HOK	MOS	SPA	BRH	FUJ	SEL
								3	5
1986	jaguar	Jaguar XJR-6	MON	SIL	LEM	NOW	BRH	JER	ONLY	SPA	FUJ
								DNF
1987	jaguar	Jaguar XJR-8	JAR	JER	MON	SIL	LEM	NOW	BRH	ONLY	SPA	FUJ
						DNF	DNF				1
1988	jaguar	Jaguar XJR-9	JER	JAR	MON	SIL	LEM	BRÜ	BRH	ONLY	SPA	FUJ	SAN
			DNF	1	1	1	DNF	2	1	2	2	1	3
1990	jaguar	Jaguar XJR-11	SUZ	MON	SIL	SPA	DIJ	ONLY	DON	MOT	MEX
			DNF	3	1	DNF	5	3	DNF	15th	DNF
1991	jaguar	Jaguar XJR-14	SUZ	MON	SIL	LEM	ONLY	LIKE	MEX	AUT
			DNF	1	3

Web links

Commons : Martin Brundle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Career overview Martin Brundle

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Motorsport Magazin: Martin Brundle takes a seat in Force India , article from May 26, 2015