Former Formula 1 driver and Sky Sports commentator Martin Brundle has received his OBE from Prince William at Windsor Castle.
Brundle was part of the King’s New Year’s honours for his services to motor racing and sports broadcasting. On top of his F1 racing career, which spanned from 1984 to 1989 and 1991 to 1996, the Briton has had an incredibly successful career in broadcasting.
Initially joining the legendary Murray Walker on ITV after his racing retirement, Brundle is now an integral part of the Sky Sports F1 broadcasting team alongside the likes of David Croft, Natalie Pinkham, and Ted Kravitz. The grid walk feature, hosted by Brundle, has become a fan-favourite moment in the lead-up to the race. Commenting on his broadcasting role and the grid walk, the former F1 driver explained to Sky Sports News:
“We’re only there to tell the story, the stories about the cars and the drivers, and we’re there to explain what is a fast-moving and highly complex sport.
“We get in amongst it, we’ve got access, we’ve got opportunities, we know everybody pretty well. But then the grid, it just gets busier, there must have been 1,000 people on there in Vegas. I can’t see anybody half the time, sometimes I can’t even see an F1 car.
“We try to find people, we talk, and I think because it’s a bit edgy and sometimes it fails miserably, I think people are kind of living it, if I’m having a good day or a bad day. I’ve never watched one in 27 years of doing it because it’s not my natural habitat to run around being cheeky and interrupting people, but it’s sort of grown a life of its own.
“What it was put in for originally was to ramp up the excitement before the Grand Prix. The cars go to the grid, it calms down a bit and then let’s get some energy going. The chance to talk to a driver literally before they pull their crash helmets on and zoom down to the first corner is unique in sport.”
Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri talks with Martin Brundle on the grid
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Reacting to the honour, Brundle explained:
“It made me feel very lucky and very privileged because always something like this, you receive on behalf of an awful lot of other people because either they were designing and creating and fixing my racing cars, or working with us in the broadcasting industry.
“You can’t do anything on your own at the level of Formula 1. I’ve been very lucky to have two careers in F1 as a driver and a broadcaster, which this award has been presented for.
“When the letter came through just before Christmas, I was ecstatic.”
Today wasn’t Brundle’s first meeting with Prince William. The 65-year-old reflected on the time he attended the 1992 British Grand Prix.
“He came along with his mother and his brother,” Brundle explained.
“We met them just after the drivers’ briefing on race day.
“We’re West Norfolk people and he spends quite a bit of time up there, so plenty to talk about. He told me a few other things, but I guess they’re private.”
