Sky Sports star Martin Brundle is also the greatest F1 driver never to win a race

Martin Brundle

Sky Sports star Martin Brundle is also the greatest F1 driver never to win a race

Brundle is an F1 icon

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Monday 1 June 2026 16:57 Updated: 17:17

For a generation of Formula 1 fans, Martin Brundle has been the jewel in Sky Sports' coverage of F1 in the UK.

Yes, he does the gridwalk in a way no one can compare, but his analysis on the sport is also second to none and it has been since he first started doing broadcasting way back in 1995 when on days he wasn't driving for Ligier, he would make a guest appearance with Murray Walker in the BBC booth.

After retiring following a season with Jordan in 1996, Brundle started full-time work for ITV as a co-commentator and he has been a fan favourite ever since.

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Martin Brundle celebrates his 67th birthday today (Monday June 1) and it's a reminder that having now been a pundit for nearly three decades, there are a lot of F1 fans out there under the age of 35 who really won't know just how good of an F1 driver he really was - or even that he was one!

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Did Martin Brundle race against Ayrton Senna?

Brundle's sheer talent was displayed before he even reached F1. In 1983 he duelled with the legendary three-time F1 world champion Ayrton Senna for the British F3 championship, only losing out in the final race due to his 'knackered' engine being no match for Senna's new power unit at Thruxton (which is a foot down and floor it track).

On his rivalry with Senna, Brundle said to MotorSport: "I knew Senna was beatable but it became incredibly intense when I started winning. He was rattled, he started complaining about the stewards, convinced they had it in for him and were trying to nail him for his aggressive tactics.

"I probably have to thank Ayrton for my F1 career and that epic season is still talked about years later. Ayrton got his drive at Toleman, Ken Tyrrell gave me my chance in F1, and now I often think that the whole experience of being a racing driver was a fact-finding mission for my TV career!”

Brundle is now a much-loved TV presenter for Sky Sports.

Where did Martin Brundle start his F1 career

Brundle's reward for his British F3 heroics was drive for Tyrrell, who by now were on their way down following their 1970s success. Brundle though still finished fifth on his debut at the Brazilian Grand Prix, before then claiming his first podium with a second place in Detroit. However, all of these records were wiped when Tyrrell were disqualified from the entire season in relation to fuel and weight infringements.

And yet, this was not the worst of Brundle's problems. During the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix, he broke both his feet and ankles in a crash during practice, ruling him out of the second half of the season. Although he returned for the start of 1985, the injuries he sustained severely hampered his career. Just getting back in the car showed tremendous courage on its own.

He told the Telegraph: "Breaking my ankle in Dallas in 1984 was the thing that really changed the direction of my life. I couldn’t run anymore. I couldn’t left-foot brake later on in my career. I smashed myself up, which I still struggle with today. I’ve got a titanium ankle now. Even when I limp, I feel lucky to be alive, especially with the era of racing that I came through."

Martin Brundle F1 Career
Year	Races	Team	Podiums	Championship Position	Points
1984	8	Tyrrell	0	NC	11
1985	15	Tyrrell	0	NC	0
1986	16	Tyrrell	0	11th	8
1987	16	Zakspeed	0	18th	2
1988	1	Williams	0	NC	0
1989	14	Brabham	0	20th	4
1991	15	Brabham	0	15th	2
1992	16	Benetton	5	6th	38
1993	16	Ligier	1	7th	13
1994	16	McLaren	2	7th	16
1995	11	Ligier	1	13th	7
1996	16	Jordan	0	11th	8

Brundle becomes world champion

Brundle's F1 career meandered through the rest of the 1980s, with just a smattering of rare points finishes. For 1987 he drove his worst ever car in the Zakspeed, which he described as not 'fast enough and not enough downforce and power.'

In 1988 he didn't have an F1 drive at all, aside from replacing Nigel Mansell at the Belgian Grand Prix for Williams after his British compatriot had caught chicken pox.

However, Brundle was by this stage competing in sportscars and in 1988 while away from F1 he dominated with Jaguar to become world champion, showcasing his skill behind the wheel and offering a reminder to F1 teams of his talent.

A season with the failing Brabham team followed in 1989 and after once again being off the grid for 1990, turned his attention for another season in sportscar racing, this time finishing sixth in the championship but winning at Silverstone.

A second season followed at Brabham for 1991 which with one points finish was even worse than his 1989 adventure. But Brundle's F1 luck finally took a turn for the better.

Was Brundle team-mates with Michael Schumacher?

For 1992, Brundle was arguably given the first competitive F1 car of his career with the Benetton B192 and was team-mates with Michael Schumacher for his first full season in the sport.

Things got off to a terrible start with four consecutive retirements but opportunity knocked at the Canadian Grand Prix. With Nigel Mansell having retired and Brundle getting ahead of Schumacher, he chased down Gerhard Berger for the lead, setting the fastest lap only for his transmission to fail with 24 laps left, leading him to retire again.

Brundle reflected on another watershed moment in his career: "I was going to win the Canadian Grand Prix in a Benetton and the differential broke towards the end. I was on the cusp on winning my first grand prix, which would have absolutely transformed my Formula 1 career, and the car failed – I didn’t finish."

At the very least he would end the season with five podiums, including one on home soil at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone as well as a second place at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix.

Martin Brundle and Michael Schumacher were team-mates at Benetton in 1992

But another win slipped through his fingers in Belgium. Approaching a crucial pit-stop phase, Schumacher had run off the track and after re-joining behind Brundle saw how badly his tyres were starting to blister.

Brundle though had track position and had first choice on a lovely set of warm slicks, however a moment of hesitation cost him dearly ending up in him finishing a distant fourth.

He said: “I come around Les Combes at the top of the hill and I’m thinking. It’s drying out, I’ve got really good grip there. I think I’m going to [pit] I’ve got nothing to lose from fourth, I’ll go in for slicks.

“I can still see the Williams. It was a little bit wetter down there at Stavelot and I hesitated.

“I hesitated to go in the pits and it’s a critical moment, Michael’s now behind me. He sees how blistered my rear tyres are when we get to the Bus Stop.

“You had to go down the pit line before the Bus Stop then. Shall I, shan’t I? He’s now got nothing to lose.

“He sails down the pit line, gets the hot tyres that were ready for me if I’d have wanted them, comes out and wins the race.”

Brundle was then surprisingly replaced by Benetton for 1993 by the ageing Riccardo Patrese, with team boss Flavio Briatore (yes, him) unhappy with how Brundle had performed relative to Schumacher.

This was despite finishing a respectable 15 points behind the future seven-time world champion, although Briatore would later admit his regret at the decision, insisting he did not realise how good Schumacher was.

Brundle's final F1 years

Brundle's best chance of a race win had now been and gone. In 1993, he moved to Ligier, securing a San Marino Grand Prix podium before he then replaced Senna at McLaren for 1994, albeit in a McLaren that had a Peugeot engine that had a habit for exploding during races. Still he took a second place in Monaco and Australia before returning to Ligier in 1995.

He took his final podium at that year's Belgian Grand Prix before enduring a low key final season at Jordan.

Brundle had the ability to win a grand prix, with luck deserting him more often than not but there may have also been a potential world champion in him had he not had such a devastating crash so early in his career. He took Senna all the way in his junior years and was arguably Michael Schumacher's best team-mate in the first part of the German's F1 career - how good could he have been with a fully fit body?

There was something else Brundle lacked though and that was self belief, admitting: "I lack self-confidence. When I was a professional racer, I didn’t have enough belief in myself. In Sportscar racing, I felt invincible, but when I was up against Senna and Schumacher, I felt not quite good enough, which is not how I should’ve been."

How good was Martin Brundle as an F1 driver?

We will never what Brundle could have truly accomplished. Could he have been a race winner, a multiple race winner or even an F1 world champion?

That's up for debate but whatever way you cut it, Martin Brundle was a damn good racing driver and even with awful injuries and confidence setbacks he showed he could battle with the finest drivers the sport has ever seen.

Written by

Dan Ripley - Global Editor

I've been a massive F1 fan since the mid 1990s and continue to study the history of the sport long before that. As an experienced motor sport reporter covering F1, MotoGP and the LeMans 24 Hour race, being part of GPFans has allowed me to work with a diverse team with all sorts of different backgrounds in watching the sport and given me a greater appreciation of F1.

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F1 Martin Brundle