F1 Fanatic

I started following F1 in about 1996 and so I saw Martin’s final season in F1, although at the time I was pretty young and remember very little!

My question is, how good was Brundle? We all know and love his commentary, but should he have won races? Should he have won championships? Was it a case of wrong place wrong time? OR was Martin simply an average racer? I’ve never really known – obviously he knows his stuff and is an excellent commentator, but was he as good a driver as a commentator? Would be interested to know your opinions!

Some call Brundle the best driver to never win a race (others say Nick Heidfeld, of course). He should have won a race or two really, but he was unlucky. If the rumours that Schumacher wanted him at Ferrari are true, he may have even won the championship. But as things went, it was always unlikely.

@Icthyes i’ve never heard of Schumacher wanting Brundle at Ferrari – in fact, i’ve only heard the opposite that he didn’t want Brundle at Benetton as he was too fast! Was he seriously linked with Ferrari then?

@Ilanin do you think that Brundle genuinely thinks he underperformed? Or is that just a racers excuse?

I might add, his biography, working the wheel is a fantastic read if you haven’t already read it

@sw6569 I only read it on a discussion forum once, I’ve never seen any link to it. Maybe they made it up.

Well this is what Brundle himself had to say when asked about his career:

I was always bemused as to why you never landed a really front-running car for the majority of your career, when your performances seemed to warrant one. If you were to have your career again, would you do anything differently?
Tim F, UK

Given that I matched the three great drivers of my generation – Senna, Schumacher and Mika Hakkinen – in the same cars on the same day, it is clear I underperformed my potential as an F1 driver.

There are a few reasons. Smashing my legs up in 1984 derailed my career progress, fundamentally compromised my fitness training programme and, most importantly, prevented me from left-foot braking when it was virtually essential in F1.

I am also guilty of not having had a 100% focus on F1 at all times and I should have engaged a more aggressive manager.

I have to balance that with my achievements with 10 podiums and clearly somebody felt I was worth employing and paying over a 12-year period. I was also lucky to survive three crashes where my chances were pretty slim. All in all I guess I wouldn’t change anything in that respect.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/8655252.stm

“I should have engaged a more aggressive manager” – that’s the telling part for me. Arguably it was contacts that helped him to his most competitive F1 drive, as Ross Brawn and Tom Walkinshaw from the Jaguar sportscar team were involved at Benetton in ’92.

He never had the benefit of continuity – seemed to move teams each year – so he’d be holding out for a drive all winter (most spectacularly with McLaren), miss out on the pre-season, then make a slow start to the season, and only hit his stride once the best drives (and his own one) were gone…

I was always impressed how he seemed to apply this experience to managing another driver. He helped keep David Coulthard secure at McLaren for year after year, then into a key role at Red Bull.

Seemed a bright and resourceful driver, and a proper all-rounder, with a great record in sportscars, and tried other things like rallies and IROC in the States. Someone mentioned Nick Heidfeld, and I’d agree – MB often qualified behind his team-mate but would match or beat him in the race. But equally he’d get stuck, or hit, in the midfield.