Martin
Brundle

Martin Brundle was born in King's Lynn, Norfolk. At twelve he began grass track racing in a Ford Anglia he had built himself, moved to Hot Rod racing in 1975 and made his British Saloon Car Championship debut in 1977. He took up Formula Ford in 1979 and stepped up to British Formula Three in 1982, winning two races and taking five pole positions in his first season. In 1983 he finished runner-up to Ayrton Senna, with the title settled in the final race.

Brundle reached Formula One with Tyrrell in 1984. He finished fifth on his debut in Brazil and second in Detroit, but a crash in practice at Dallas ruled him out for the rest of the year. Tyrrell were later excluded from the 1984 championship, so his results were struck from the record, including the Detroit runner-up spot. He stayed with Tyrrell until the end of 1986 and scored his first credited points with fifth place in the 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix, ending that season eleventh in the standings. In 1987 he drove for Zakspeed. His two points for fifth place at San Marino were the only ones the team ever scored in Formula One.

In 1988 he joined Jaguar in sportscar racing, winning the World Sportscar Championship and the 24 Hours of Daytona. He also deputised for Nigel Mansell at Williams in the Belgian Grand Prix. He came back to Formula One with Brabham in 1989, returned to Jaguar in 1990 to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and rejoined Brabham in 1991.

In 1992 he partnered Michael Schumacher at Benetton and finished sixth in the championship, the best final position of his career. At Ligier in 1993 he was seventh overall, including third place at Imola, and in 1994 he was seventh again with McLaren, with second place at Monaco. He went back to Ligier in 1995, sharing the car with Aguri Suzuki, and finished on the podium at Spa. In 1996 he raced alongside Rubens Barrichello at Jordan, and his final Grand Prix was the Japanese round, where he came fifth. He made 160 starts and took nine podiums, without a win.

Brundle later returned to Le Mans with Nissan, Toyota and Bentley, and in 2012 he raced there with his son Alex, finishing 15th overall and eighth in the LMP2 class. From 1997 he worked as a commentator for ITV, then for the BBC from 2009 and for Sky Sports from 2012. He won the RTS Television Sports Award for best sports pundit in 1998, 1999, 2005 and 2006, and in 2025 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to motor racing and sports broadcasting.

Source: Wikipedia, “Martin Brundle”. Text licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.