MY TOP 20 BRITISH F1 DRIVERS - Number 16

MARTIN BRUNDLE
GRANDS PRIX - 165
BEST FINISH - 2nd twice
BEST GRID POSITION - 3rd (France 1993)
POINTS SCORED - 98
--- F1 CAREER ---
1984 - Tyrrell Ford - Disqualified from season
1985 - Tyrrell Renault - 0pts
1986 - Tyrrell Renault - 11th - 8pts
1987 - Zakspeed - 18th - 2pts
1988 - Williams Judd - 0pts*
1989 - Brabham Judd - 20th - 4pts
1991 - Brabham Yamaha - 15th - 2pts
1992 - Benetton Ford - 6th - 38pts
1993 - Ligier Renault - 7th - 13pts
1994 - McLaren Peugeot - 7th - 16 points
1995 - Ligier Mugen Honda - 13th - 7pts
1996 - Jordan Peugeot - 11th - 8pts

Chris Amon, Stefan Johansson, Derek Warwick, the list can go on of what are considered to be the best drivers never to win a Grand Prix, you can also add to that list Martin Brundle from Kings Lynn in Norfolk. He may be more famous today in his role as a commentator for British TV coverage of F1 races but back in his day, he was a decent driver in his own right, unluckily for him though, he spent most of his years driving for mainly mid-grid teams. But outside F1 he made a big name for himself in Sportscars and has a Le Mans 24 hour win to his name.

A young Brundle first hit the headlines famously in 1983 while in British Formula 3, he was the man who ran Ayrton Senna close in a season that went down in folklore, he ran the future triple world champion extremely close but ultimately lost out. There would be a silver lining to his achievements though that season, the performances of both drivers got them noticed by some of Formula 1's elite and they were given tests for several teams. In the end, Senna decided to make a "low key" entry with Toleman while Brundle would partner Stefan Bellof at Tyrrell for 1984.

Brundle made a name for himself in his very first grand prix in Brazil where he would (At the time) join an elite group of drivers that scored points in their debut race, he achieved this with a 5th place. Brundle would continue tim impress in the nimble little Tyrrell alongside Bellof, the young German earned a great 3rd place in a very rainy Monaco while Brundle went one better scoring a brilliant 2nd spot in Detroit, his season though was brought to an abrupt end just one week after that 2nd place finish as he broke both his ankles in a nasty crash in practice at Dallas. Further woe came in the form of an FIA ruling expunging his and the Tyrrell squad's records for the entire season due to a fuel tank irregularity.

Due to the 1984 expulsion, the Tyrrell squad lost all travel benefits and most of their sponsors jumped ship, as a result, development on the 1985 car froze and as a result, Brundle and Bellof suffered badly, scoring just 7 points between them (Brundle scored zero) and the team were also affected greatly by Bellof's tragic death during a sportscar race in Belgium. For 1986, Brundle would be joined at Tyrrell by young Frenchman Philippe Streiff who impressed at Ligier the previous season, the new car was a welcome arrival and Brundle used it to great effect, scoring his first "official" points finish in the opening round at Brazil, he went on to score a highly respectable 8 points with his best result being a 4th in the season finale at Adelaide, Australia.

For 1987, Brundle joined the ambitious Zakspeed project who had built their own turbocharged engine, but joining Zakspeed would prove to be the one bad decision of Brundle's career, joined by the young German F3000 star Christian Danner, Brundle struggled to even get the hopeless car with its underpowered turbo to qualify in the top 20, reliability was also a problem as Brundle only managed to finish 3 races, but Brundle was a better racer than a qualifier and in the races he managed to finish, he finished well, the high point being his 2 points for 5th place at San Marino, this would prove to be the only points finish in Zakspeed's F1 history.

Disillusioned with racing for Zakspeed, he quit F1 to go sportscar racing in 1988 in which he would win his one major championship honour, the World Sportscar Championship of 1988 driving one of the famous Silk Cut Jaguar XJR-9's, he did though guest drive for Williams in 1988 when Nigel Mansell was struck down with chicken pox, he didnt disappoint either finishing a respectable 7th in Belgium. This paved the way for a full time return to F1 for 1989 with Brabham as teammate to Stefano Modena, he may have scored onyl 4 points and finished down in 20th place in the championship, but it was nothign to be disgraced about, especially as in the first part of the season, due to Brabham missing the 1988 season and a colossal 39 car entry list, he was forced to pre-qualify for races.

Brundle decided to go Sportscar racing again in 1990 again for the Jaguar squad and it would be in this year where he would win his biggest prize, the Le Mans 24 Hour race, he won the famous race along with John Nielsen and Price Cobb in a glorious race where British cars dominated. Brundle thanks to that win was again high in demand, but decided to return to F1 with Brabham for 1991, he struggled with a poor car and only mustered 2 points, his 5th place in Japan would turn out to be the famous team's last ever points finish.

His efforts didnt go unoticed and on the back of his sportscar achievements, Brundle finally was given the chance at a frontrunning team he had craved in 1992 when he signed for Benetton as team-mate to Michael Schumacher for his first full season. By far his best season in F1, Brundle put in some excellent performances, despite never qualifying ahead of Schumacher, he out-raced him on a number of occasions and 2 races in particular. In Canada, he overtook Schumacher and left him for dead and then proceeded to reel in Gerhard Berger and with the pace he was doing, he would have overtaken him and won, but his transmission failed with 24 laps left to run. And also in Belgium Brundle was on the right strategy in order to win and was running strongly when he ran off the track with Schumacher following, Brundle was due to pit that lap but Schumacher did so instead ordering the team to pit him instead of Brundle for fresh tyres because when Brundle went off the road, Schumacher noticed blistering on his team-mates tyres. Overall it was a great season with a best finish of 2nd place in Italy, 5 podium finishes and a final score of 38 points good enough for 6th place in the championship.

But for team manager Flavio Briatore, it was oddly not good enough for him, he unceremoniusly dumped Brundle in favour of Riccardo Patrese for 1993. But thanks to his stong showing in the Benetton, Brundle was a man in demand, and he ended up signing for Ligier along with his good friend Mark Blundell, together they gained 3 podium finishes between them and scored a total of 23 points with Brundle contributing 13 of them in a good seaason. For large parts of pre-season before 1994, Brundle was out in the cold without a drive, despite being in the frame for Ayrton Senna's vacant seat at McLaren, Ron Dennis was trying to convince Alain Prost to postpone his retirement, when that was unsuccessful, Brundle was battling Philippe Alliot for the race seat, and when Alliot's recent performances for the Larrousse team were taken into account, Bundle was signed. And he didnt let McLaren down, 16 points including a brilliant 2nd place at Monaco and 3rd in Australia kept up his role as Mr Reliable.

With McLaren signing Mark Blundell for 1995, Brundle went back to Ligier as part of a drive sharing deal with Aguri Suzuki (a sweetner to secure a Mugen Honda engine deal) a deal which drew huge criticism from journalists and fans alike, so Brundle only competed in 11 of the 17 races, still though when called upon he didnt disappoint, a podium finish in Belgium part of a total of 7 points, good enough to earn 13th place in the championship. For 1996, his F1 swansong, he joined the eccentric Eddie Jordan's team partnering the young Brazilian Rubens Barrichello and in his very first race for the team, he suffered an accident which would have killed him if it were 5 years previously. He survived though and took advantage of what was a good Jordan chassis, he was a regular in the points with his best finish of the year being a 4th in Hungary. In Japan, he finished his final grand prix where he started, in 5th place. Overall he ended up with 8 points good enough for 11th place.

Despite being offered a race seat at Sauber alongside Johnny Herbert for 1997, Brundle decided agaisnt it, announced his retirement from F1 and pursued a career in the media where he still works today, he became Murray Walker's co-commentator for ITV but the lure of the race track was still too much in some cases, so he decided to have another crack at winning the Le Mans 24 Hours and despite 3 years racing with heavily funded efforts at Nissan, Toyota and Bentley, he hung up his helmet for good in 2001. Now he is a highly repsected commentator and journalist as well as being David Coulthard's manager.