Martin Brundle

Martin John Brundle (born 1 June 1959) is a British former racing driver and broadcaster who competed in Formula One from 1984 to 1996. In endurance racing, Brundle won the World Sportscar Championship in 1988 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1990, both with Jaguar; he also won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1988 with Jaguar. Since retiring from racing, Brundle has been a commentator for ITV, the BBC, and Sky.

Born and raised in King's Lynn, Norfolk, Brundle began competing in grass track racing aged 12 in a self-built Ford Anglia, before moving into Hot Rod racing. After several seasons in the British Saloon Car Championship, Brundle progressed to British Formula Three in 1982. He finished runner-up to Ayrton Senna the following season amidst a close title battle. Both progressed to Formula One in 1984, with Brundle joining Tyrrell and making his debut at the Brazilian Grand Prix, where he finished fifth; he took his maiden podium at the Detroit Grand Prix, but was later disqualified from the season after the discovery of a technical infringement on the 012. After another non-classified championship finish in 1985, Brundle scored his first credited points with another fifth-place at the 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix. Brundle signed for Zakspeed in 1987, but left after one season to join Jaguar in sportscar racing, whom he had already won several races for in the European Touring Car Championship. Brundle won the World Sportscar Championship in record-breaking fashion that season, as well as the 24 Hours of Daytona.

Brundle returned to Formula One in 1989 with Brabham, having already stood in for Nigel Mansell at Williams for the 1988 Belgian Grand Prix. He split his two seasons at Brabham with another season at Jaguar, this time winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, driving the XJR-12. Brundle joined Benetton in 1992 to partner Michael Schumacher, achieving five podium finishes and finishing a career-best sixth in the World Drivers' Championship. He scored a further podium with Ligier at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1993, before moving to McLaren for 1994. Brundle finished seventh in the championship for the second successive season with McLaren, with a second-placed finish at the Monaco Grand Prix. He returned to Ligier in 1995, scoring another podium in Belgium. Brundle retired from Formula One at the end of his 1996 season with Jordan, having achieved nine podiums across 12 seasons.

Upon retiring from motor racing, Brundle moved into commentary, working as an analyst on Formula One coverage for ITV Sport (1997–2008), BBC Sport (2009–2011) and Sky Sports F1 (2012–present), the latter of which was the official global broadcast until 2022. In rallying, he competed in the Rally of Great Britain in 1999. His son Alex is also a racing driver, who won the 2016 European Le Mans Series in the LMP3 class. Brundle was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2025 New Year Honours.

Brundle had an unorthodox route to Formula One. He began his racing career at the age of 12, competing in grass track racing in a self-built Ford Anglia, in the Norfolk village of Pott Row. In 1975, he moved to Hot Rod racing and received 'Star grade' status. In 1977, he debuted in the British Saloon Car Championship just a couple of months short of turning 18, becoming the series' youngest ever driver (until Tom Boardman in 2001). In 1979, he started single seater racing in Formula Ford. During this time, he also raced Tom Walkinshaw's BMW touring cars, during which he finished second against a field of international drivers at Snetterton. He won the BMW championship in 1980, and partnered Stirling Moss in the TWR-run BP/Audi team during the 1981 British Saloon Car Championship season. In 1982, he moved up to Formula Three achieving five pole positions and two wins in his debut season. He won the Grovewood Award as the most promising Commonwealth driver. The following year, he competed with Ayrton Senna for the Formula Three championship, which Brundle lost on the final laps of the last race. In 1984, he was offered a Formula One entry.

Brundle's Formula One career began with the Tyrrell Racing Organisation in 1984. He put in a number of aggressive and fast drives, finishing fifth in his first race in Brazil and then second in Detroit, crossing the line less than a second behind race winner Nelson Piquet. At the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix, Brundle broke his ankles and both feet in a crash during a practice session, and was forced to miss the rest of the season while he recuperated; the severity of the damage to Brundle's left ankle initially led doctors to consider amputating his left foot. While Brundle did recover, the damage would leave him with permanent injuries, preventing him from running and left-foot braking. Later in the year, Tyrrell were disqualified from the World Championship due to a technical infringement and Brundle's achievements for that season, including his Detroit podium, were wiped from the record books.

For the next two seasons he remained with Tyrrell, and despite the team's switch from the Cosworth DFV to the turbocharged Renault engines in mid-1985, the team struggled against the works teams. Due to Tyrrell's disqualification from the 1984 season, Brundle was only credited with eight points in his time with the team, all in the 1986 season.

In 1987, Brundle left Tyrrell and moved to the struggling West German team Zakspeed, but scored only two points during the year; both were scored for finishing fifth at the 1987 San Marino Grand Prix. The Zakspeed 871 car was unable to compete with the front runners. The two points scored by Brundle in 1987 were the only points the Zakspeed team scored in their five-year (1985–89) run in Formula One. Ironically, the driver he replaced at Zakspeed, fellow Englishman Jonathan Palmer, would join Tyrrell in 1987 who were once again using a Cosworth engine. While Brundle only had one point scoring finish for the season, Palmer would go on to score six World Championship points for Tyrrell and would also win the Jim Clark Cup as the 'Atmo Champion' for drivers of cars with naturally aspirated engines.