Martin Brundle was left lost for words during his much-loved Grid Walk at the Chinese Grand Prix after his encounter with influencer Xue Zhang, otherwise known as Mr. Unicorn.
Despite three decades of doing his famous Grid Walk, with the former driver’s debut taking place at the 1997 British Grand Prix, Brundle continues to entertain fans with his hilarious and sometimes a little awkward off-the-cuff interviews. While walking the grid ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix, Brundle clocked ‘Mr Unicorn’, commenting: “There’s an unusual character… Xue Zhang.” After approaching the influencer, Brundle asked him to introduce himself:
“I’m Mr Unicorn from China! I’m looking for the fastest man alive over here,” he shouted enthusiastically. He unravelled a scroll with traditional Chinese typography written across it, translating to “fastest man in the world” in English, according to the unicorn head-clad influencer. When asked which driver he thought was the fastest alive, he responded, “Lewis Hamilton!”
Taking to social media after the race, Brundle reacted to the unusual moment, posting:
“It’s a funny old world. If we were all the same it would be boring. I think his spelling is a bit questionable there.”
Brundle recently opened up on his broadcasting career, which came after two stints in Formula 1 from 1984-1989 and 1991-1996. Revealing that he never wanted to move into broadcasting, the Brit explained:
“I never wanted to be a broadcaster. I was so angry because I wanted to be on the grid in 1997 driving for Jordan and I ended up working with Murray Walker on TV. As the cars went to the grid, I was like ‘Stop, you can’t go yet. I’m not ready!’ Here we are, almost three decades later and weirdly, my entire motorsport career seems to be a fact-finding mission for my broadcasting career.
Martin Brundle, Sky Sports F1
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
“The grid walk actually really annoys me because that’s what I’m known for now.
“The whole thing is still a mystery. I won a lot of races as a driver and was on the F1 podium. I was World Sportscar champion, winner at Le Mans, beat Ayrton Senna a lot of times in F3 – I was a reasonably handy racing driver and I’m a reasonably handy commentator but all I’m going to be remembered for is getting ignored on the grid by the Megan Thee Stallion and other people I’d never heard of until that moment.
“It’s quite a funny thing but I can’t knock it – heading towards 66, I’m lucky to still be in live sport and that’s why I was pleased with the OBE because it wasn’t an OBE just for grid walking.”
