Martin Brundle has had his hands on the wheels of all kinds of fast and fancy cars. As a British racing driver, he drove cutting-edge vehicles for Benetton, McLaren and Jaguar. He’s also owned a few Porsches and Ferraris in his time, while his job as a television presenter means he has put some of the most iconic supercars through their paces, from a Lamborghini Diablo GT to a Pagani Zonda C12 S.
Before all that, though, he built his own. “I used to work at my dad’s garages in Norfolk, which I loved,” he tells me. “I sold petrol and cleaned cars when I was eight. I started building my own racing cars when I was 12, just old jalopies, out of something unsalable—we’d take the windows out, put a roll cage in, put the radiator in the rear window and make it a racing car. I had to earn that. I used to get 25 pence if I did a good job, 30 pence if I did a really good job.”
In less scrappy vehicles, Brundle has competed in 158 Formula 1 Grands Prix between 1984 and 1996, as well as endurance racing events, including the World Sportscar Championship in 1988. His proudest achievement is winning the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1990 (“I remember the feeling. You’re exhausted, elated…”).
The thrill of racing came when human and machine synced up. “You get ahead of the game,” he explains. “It’s like the centre forward in football who finds himself in the right place in the penalty box, or Federer reading the ball better than anyone else at the time.”
There were also serious lows, such as the death of his German teammate Stefan Bellof, who crashed in 1985 during a 1,000km endurance race in Belgium. Brundle had several accidents himself, including overturning at the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix and a severe crash at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix, in which he broke both his ankles and feet, nearly leading to amputation. In the 1996 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, he had “a very famous crash, where I rolled”. Though he managed to walk away and restarted the race in a spare car, he retired from F1 later that year.
Up against rivals like Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet, Brundle believes his self-doubt sometimes held him back. “I didn’t have the talent of [teammates] Senna or Schumacher but I had tenacity,” he says.
He has demonstrated that tenacity again in his post-racing television career, including his current gig as F1 presenter and commentator for Sky Sports. During his pre-race grid walks, he tries to interview—with mixed success—famous spectators, such as David Beckham, Florence Pugh and Stormzy. It sometimes makes for a very different kind of “car crash TV”, whether it’s Serena Williams acting like he’s invisible, Megan Thee Stallion’s entourage brusquely moving him on, or Cara Delevingne claiming she can’t hear his questions. “When I get knocked back by security guards, I just find that funny,” he tells me. “I’ve been on the grid for 40 years and you can guarantee it’s the first time they’ve been on the Formula 1 grid. Somehow they think they’re in charge, and they’re not.”
Along with the “blankings”, the under-pressure Brundle has also misidentified people on the grid walks, such as greeting a young man in a baseball cap as Lewis Capaldi, only to discover it was his brother Martin (Lewis was close behind). “Trying to know who all these people are and what they do is impossible,” he says. “I walked past three Australian gold medallists in Melbourne, and got rinsed by the Aussie fans, but I can’t look at everybody and wonder if they’re famous or not.”
Born in King’s Lynn in 1959, Brundle still lives in Norfolk, as well as London. According to some online reports, he’s worth around £75m, which he denies. “It’s hilarious looking at those things. Whenever you see these numbers, like when they announce F1 contracts, it’s always nonsense. It makes you question every other figure you read in newspapers. But we are lucky there’s a bit of money around.”
Likewise, he has no complaints about his life of international travel or being recognised. “Driving and doing what you love for a living, your sport or hobby, is a privilege. With fame, I always say to young drivers now, it’s when people stop asking you for an autograph or selfie that you need to worry, not when they do ask. It all passes very quickly—you should make the most of it while you’ve got it.”
Martin Brundle is part of Sky Sports’ Formula 1 coverage throughout the 2026 season on Sky Sports and NOW.
