Martin Brundle

About

Martin Brundle  is a British former racing driver turned commentator.

Brundle contested the 1983 British Formula Three Championship, finishing a close second to Ayrton Senna, and the two progressed to Formula One the next year. Brundle was the 1988 World Sportscar Champion with Silk Cut Jaguar, with a record points score; and won the 1988 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans for Jaguar Cars.

In 2016, in an academic paper that reported a mathematical modeling study that assessed the relative influence of driver and machine, Brundle was ranked the 30th best Formula One driver of all time.

Motion picture writer/director David Cronenberg, a motor racing enthusiast, named the protagonist of his 1986 film The Fly “Seth Brundle” after Martin Brundle. The protagonist of the film’s sequel, The Fly II (1989) is Seth Brundle’s son “Martin Brundle.”

Post Racing Career

Having largely retired from motor racing, Brundle became a highly regarded commentator on British television network ITV, whom he joined when they began Formula One coverage in 1997, initially alongside Murray Walker, and from 2002 James Allen. Brundle joined the BBC’s commentary team alongside Jonathan Legard when they won back the rights to show F1 from 2009. Before the start of the 2011 season, the BBC announced that Brundle was being promoted to lead commentator and would be joined by fellow former F1 driver, David Coulthard. He signed for Sky Sports’ coverage at the end of 2011. At Sky Brundle returned to a co-commentary role, working alongside lead commentator David Croft.

For his television work Brundle has won the RTS Television Sports Award for best Sports Pundit in 1998, 1999, 2005 and 2006.

In June 2011, shortly before the 2011 European Grand Prix, Brundle completed a one-off Formula One test for the series’ tyre supplier Pirelli at Jerez. He completed a total of 70 laps on all of their tyre compounds, with the results and events of the day aired before the 2011 Hungarian Grand Prix.