{"id":12425,"date":"2022-12-06T16:00:22","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T21:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=12425"},"modified":"2026-02-12T17:28:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:28:45","slug":"5-times-martin-brundle-showed-his-genius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2022\/12\/06\/5-times-martin-brundle-showed-his-genius\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Times Martin Brundle Showed His Genius"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>An F1 legend both on and off the track, LWOS takes a look at some of the best moments in the career of Martin Brundle.<\/h3>\n<p>Since 1984, the Grand Prix community has been blessed with the presence of Martin Brundle. A driver for 12 years and commentator for 25, Brundle is an omnipresent figure within the paddock, who transitioned from the cockpit to the commentary box with seamless ease. Through his 38 years\u2019 involvement in Formula 1, Brundle has shown so many moments of brilliance, whether it be behind the wheel or the mic.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>5 \u2013 <del>Rule<\/del> Breakthrough<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Brundle made his F1 debut with Tyrrell in 1984 after a thrilling <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VxDBqABanuo\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Formula 3 Championship the year before<\/a>, in which he narrowly lost the title to another \u201884 F1 debutant \u2013 one <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2017\/05\/01\/ayrton-senna-life-hero\/\" target=\"_self\">Ayrton Senna<\/a>. Despite driving the naturally-aspirated Tyrrell around a swarm of turbo-charged cars, Brundle made good use of the nimble car around the twisty Detroit street circuit, finishing a brilliant 2<sup>nd<\/sup>. However, Tyrrell were disqualified from the result and the whole championship after alleged infringements of the rules, but it did not take away what was an accomplished performance from the young rookie in only his eighth Grand Prix.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Martin Brundle finishes 2nd in Detroit 1984\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7GV7cxkXBME?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>4 \u2013 Rule Britannia<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>After many years of drives with uncompetitive teams, Martin Brundle was hired by Benetton in 1992, two years after winning the Le Mans 24 Hours with Jaguar. He was at last able to show his worth in a fast car, and on many occasions, matched the performance of his team-mate \u2013 a young, rising German wunderkind named Michael Schumacher. Brundle scored five podium finishes that year, perhaps his most memorable coming at the British Grand Prix. The race is known for winner Nigel Mansell being mobbed by his adoring fans on the in-lap after the race, but a special, and very loud cheer, was given to Brundle as he lifted his 3<sup>rd<\/sup>-place trophy in front<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KGh7UL08rKY\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a0of the Silverstone crowd<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Martin Brundle Winning at Le Mans | BRUNDLE: behind the wheel\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aD7bHTVix7w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>3 \u2013 Street smart<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In 1994, Brundle joined McLaren, and whilst a lot of the season was dampened by an unreliable Peugeot engine, it did not stop Brundle from scoring some good results when the car lasted the course of the race. The most notable example came in Monaco, where he matched his career-best finish. Gerhard Berger\u2019s Ferrari spun at St Devote but was able to keep his 2<sup>nd<\/sup> place, but came into Brundle\u2019s clutches. After chasing him hard up the hill towards Casino Square, Brundle amazingly overtook Berger on the outside into Mirabeau.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=HBbqobmZ84s<\/p>\n<h3><strong>2 \u2013 Savage commentary<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>When British commercial TV station ITV bought the rights to show Formula 1 in 1997, Brundle was hired to commentate alongside the legendary broadcaster, Murray Walker. Brundle\u2019s personable humor, as well as his concise knowledge and breadth of information, enabled him to be a perfect foil for the excitable Walker. Brundle is happy to speak his mind, and during the qualifying session for the 1998 Monaco Grand Prix, he produced one of the best examples of this. As the TV cameras picked-up Tyrrell driver Ricardo Rosset spinning and getting stuck on a kerb as he attempted to spin-turn the car around, the usually-diplomatic Walker said that many in Formula 1 were debating whether Rosset was Formula 1 material. Brundle&#8217;s response was short but not very sweet.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ricardo Rosset (Tyrrell 026) qualifying incidents - 1998 Monaco Grand Prix\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e-7y1_cju4c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>1 \u2013 Let\u2019s go walkies<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>It would not be fair to single out one example from the myriad of choices when it comes to Brundle\u2019s infamous \u201cgrid walks\u201d. Unscripted and broadcast to millions around the world, Brundle will walk and talk to anyone and everyone, from drivers and team crew to the occasional fan, as well as, fairly often, insipid celebrities who are more than happy to accept the freebie to the race. Brundle has spoken to drivers moments before winning the World Championship, has been shoved out of the way by Megan Thee Stallion&#8217;s entourage, and has been ignored by Venus Williams and Brad Pitt.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps Brundle&#8217;s greatest grid walk moment &#8211; aside from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=G3xaw9PUw9Q\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">speaking to Ozzy Osbourne in Montreal<\/a> &#8211; was his cornering of then-F1-supremo Bernie Ecclestone before the 2005 American Grand Prix, asking why no solution had been found to prevent a race in which only six cars would participate. The longer interview continues, the more people are congregating to earwig Brundle&#8217;s questions &#8211; on behalf of his &#8220;eight million mates&#8221; watching in the UK &#8211; to Ecclestone.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Gridwalk USA GP 2005\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HAHsKh97sGo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h5>Featured Image Credit: Jack Thomas\/Getty Images for Fox Sports<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An F1 legend both on and off the track, LWOS takes a look at some of the best moments in the career of Martin Brundle. Since 1984, the Grand Prix community has been blessed with the presence of Martin Brundle. A driver for 12 years and commentator for 25, Brundle is an omnipresent figure within [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":12768,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[756,2,4],"tags":[1885,555,1854,136,423,1928,84,1853,205,1919,66,360,540,945,1924,1926,1925],"class_list":["post-12425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classic-formula-1","category-featured","category-formula-1","tag-american-grand-prix","tag-ayrton-senna","tag-benetton","tag-bernie-ecclestone","tag-british-grand-prix","tag-detroit","tag-ferrari","tag-gerhard-berger","tag-jaguar","tag-martin-brundle","tag-mclaren","tag-michael-schumacher","tag-monaco-grand-prix","tag-montreal","tag-murray-walker","tag-paugeot","tag-ricardo-rosset"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38990,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12425\/revisions\/38990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}