Martin Brundle

Martin John Brundle (born 1 June 1959) is a British former racing driver, best known as a Formula One driver and as a commentator for ITV Sport from 1997 to 2008, the BBC from 2009 to 2011, and Sky Sports since 2012.

In 1975, he moved to Hot Rod racing and received 'Star grade' status.

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 next year, he competed with Ayrton Senna for the Formula Three championship, which Brundle lost on the final laps of the last race.

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 had been associated with Jaguar since 1983, when he drove TWR-prepared Jaguar XJS touring cars in the European Touring Car Championship.

From his two starts with the Jaguar team Brundle took two victories, the second in partnership with TWR owner Tom Walkinshaw.

When Jaguar decided to return to the World Sportscar Championship and the American IMSA championship, in partnership with TWR, Walkinshaw chose Brundle as his lead driver.

In 1984, he was offered a Formula One entry.

His Formula One career began with the Tyrrell Racing Organisation in.

He put in a number of aggressive and fast drives, finishing fifth in his first race in Brazil and then second in Detroit before being disqualified.

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 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-, the team struggled against the works teams.

He scored only eight points in his time with Tyrrell, all in the season.

In he 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.

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.

Brundle had an unorthodox route to Formula One.

He began his racing career at the age of 12, competing in grass track racing, in the Norfolk village of Pott Row.

Four years of Formula One racing for underfunded teams led Brundle to seek a new challenge, and thus in 1988 he took a year out.

The team performed well in the 1988 World Sportscar Championship season, and Brundle won the world sportscar title with a record points haul.

He also won the Daytona 24 Hours the same year.

He became the test driver for Williams and stood in for Nigel Mansell at the 1988 Belgian Grand Prix, after Mansell was struck down with chickenpox.

Brundle was to have driven Mansell's Williams-Judd again at the next race at Monza in Italy but prior IMSA commitments with TWR saw the drive go to fellow World Sportscar Championship contender Jean-Louis Schlesser instead (as no WSC race clashed with the Italian GP).

Schlesser would infamously be involved in the incident which caused the retirement of McLaren's Ayrton Senna late in the race, handing the win to Ferrari's Gerhard Berger and causing McLaren's only loss of the season.

In he returned to Formula One full-time with the returning Brabham team who would be running the Judd V8 engine.

But while the former champions were initially competitive, with Brundle running third at Monaco until a flat battery forced him to pit for a replacement while his teammate Stefano Modena finishing third, Brabham were unable to recapture their early past success and Brundle, who had failed to pre-qualify for both the Canadian and French races during the season opted to move back into the sports car arena for 1990.

His 1990 24 Hours of Le Mans victory rejuvenated his career, but still a top-line race seat in Formula One eluded him.

As well as contesting races in sports prototypes, Brundle also contested the American IROC series in 1990.

He took victory at the temporary circuit at Burke Lakefront Airport (the only IROC victory for a British driver) and finished third in the overall standings.

In 1991 he rejoined Brabham, but the squad had fallen even further down the grid and good results were sparse.

Seasoned observers noticed Brundle's drives into the points in the uncompetitive Brabham Yamaha in 1991, which was the last points finish for the Brabham team.