Martin Brundle's witty and wry comments (as well as the sarcastic and sometimes all-too-brutally honest ones!) are considered by many to be the highlight of television coverage of Formula 1 Grand Prix races. This site lists some of Martin's best quotes.
Any quotes I've missed which you would like to see included can be sent to me here. Please try to give me some clues as to when it happened.
Photo kindly provided by www.sutton-images.com Animated flags from www.3dflags.com
PLEASE NOTE! I don’t have Martin’s ear (or his email address!) and so I cannot forward questions, or requests for photos and autographs, to him.
Martin has his own site at www.martinbrundle.com/
Callie
2010 Calendar
14 March - Bahrain
28 March - Australia
04 April - Malaysia
18 April - China
09 May - Spain
16 May - Monaco
30 May - Turkey
13 June - Canada
27 June - Europe
11 July - Britain
25 July - Germany
01 August - Hungary
29 August - Belgium
12 September - Italy
26 September - Singapore
10 October - Japan
24 October - Korea
07 November - Brazil
14 November - Abu Dhabi
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Abu Dhabi 2009
“If you’re doing 190 miles an hour and you stop your front wheels turning and you skid them along, they become like fifty pence pieces and they’re dreadful; they vibrate like crazy. (Rosberg) will barely be able to see where he’s going at high speed if he’s flat-spotted them badly enough.”
Jonathan: “Where is (Kovalainen) gonna end up [next season]?”
Martin: “Well, he nearly ended up in the barriers at Turn 1.”
“Grosjean has a great desire to turn around and look at the corner he’s just gone through too many times per session. He’s always spinning that Renault.”
(Looking at the kilometre-wide FerrariWorld near the track)
“Wouldn’t wanna be the guy who has to clean the roof on that thing.”
“(Raikkonen) was busy bumbling across the kerbs.”
“Edge it to the middle of the track because the track’s gonna come out and surprise you any minute now.”
“I’d be surprised if that keeps him in the top ten – but I’ve been surprised before.”
(Talking about the underground pitlane exit)
“It’s kind of ... it’s fine. It’s ‘why?’ Why? I guess because you can when you start with a new circuit.”
“Kovalainen waving to the camels.”
“We’re gonna serve up some mischief on the grid, given half the chance.”
“Another replay of the start. I think we’ve seen everything we need to see already.”
“I found out something today that surprised me: that they try to factor Jarno Trulli into the races in terms of whether he’s gonna have a good day or not. They call him the Trulli Train within the computer programme as to whether he’s likely to back people up and create a nice space to drop your car back into after a pitstop or whether he’s on form and is gonna be a major feature.”
“The boy Vettel is always smiling every time you see him, isn’t he? It’s not just for the cameras, either – he’s always got a smile on his face, and I bet he has right now.”
Jonathan: “What are the discussions, d’you reckon, on the Red Bull pitwall?”
Martin: “I don’t think there’ll be any discussions on the pitwall. I think they’ll just be enjoying the moment.”
(Barrichello’s engineer urges him on over the radio)
“Jock’s right in the cockpit, isn’t he?!”
“It’s wrecking their afternoon ... evening, night, whatever you like to think of it as!”
“[Before they came into Formula 1,] (Kobayashi) was kind of OK, wasn’t he, nothing special, but Grosjean looked a star. But you know, this is all about pressure: who can deliver under the spotlight – not just the spotlights that are here at this racetrack. Some people grow – they use the spotlight as energy; others wilt and melt under it.”
“You draw the short straw if you’re the marshall in the tunnel, don’t you? All you see is some very slow, struggling, clumsy Formula 1 cars.”
“I like that about Alonso: he’s on an in-lap and still he does a do-or-die braking into Turn 11.”
Jonathan: “[The creators of the Abu Dhabi circuit] have impressed everyone in Formula 1. That’s not to say that every other circuit should be like this – you need the variety as much as modern and new.”
Martin: “Yeah, I’m gonna buy Silverstone a big herd of camels and see if we can make the difference there. But I tell you what: there’s three corners at Silverstone that this track would trade them for.”
“I think Bernie’s walking tall here.”
(Fisichella overtakes Grosjean)
Jonathan: “Proud of that one?”
Martin: “Uh, I think they were both out of control, frankly! But it’s hardly gonna change our lives today, is it?”
“That boy (Vettel) will be the World Champion sooner rather than later.”
Amanda Fuller tells me that, at the end of the Red Button Forum on the BBC, just as Jake was signing off, Martin piped up with:
“Happy Christmas!”
(Personally, I think that anyone mentioning Christmas this early in the year deserves long and painful punishment, but I dutifully post it anyway!)
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Brazil 2009
“The engineers have to guesstimate what ride height they’re gonna put at, ‘cause the 50 mill step underneath and the plank turns into a canoe if there’s an awful lot of water on the track.”
(Footage of a bird standing at the side of the track)
Jonathan: “He should be asleep! That’s an owl!”
Martin: “You don’t get too many wise things around Formula 1, do you?”
“I remember driving out of the pits here in a Jordan and the water was so deep in the pitlane, it came over the top of my front wing and cleared my head sitting in the car.”
“Vettel splashing around, frightening himself silly.”
“After the box of bits that Buemi and Alguersuari delivered the team back in Suzuka a couple of weeks ago, they’ll be very nervous of sending their young puppy dogs out there.”
“This is the kind of day that sorts the great from the merely good.”
“Rosberg tiptoes onto the pit straight, albeit at 150 miles an hour, but it is a tiptoe.”
(Over-running Qualifying delays the start of “Strictly Come Dancing” in the UK)
Jonathan: “(Barrichello) still in the hunt.”
Martin: “I just wonder if he can dance.”
“I used to love sitting in the car like that [in the pit garage]. It’s so snug: the seat’s made to fit you absolutely perfectly; your gloves, your boots, your overalls; you’ve got your helmet on; you’re peeping over the top of the monocoque – it’s like laying in the bath and looking over the taps, but you do feel cozy; you feel safe.”
“If I was Jenson, I’d be a little bit nervous of who’s currently ... There’s some real bandits behind him on the grid at the moment! Kobayashi, Grosjean, Sutil and Buemi – I think I’d be nervously looking in my mirrors if that was the pack behind me at the start tomorrow.”
(to Webber) “You’ll need a police escort out of here if you beat Rubens Barrichello!”
“Jenson’s middle name is ‘Lucky’ this year.”
“It’s only lap 7 and I’m out of breath already!”
“Button’s been as sharp as a sushi knife all year with overtaking.”
“Remember Kovalainen, not five minutes ago, was dragging a fuel line down the pitlane, setting fire to random Ferraris.”
“Jenson will be swearing inside his helmet over that one.”
“That’s got all the hallmarks of an early shower for Rosberg.”
Martin: “A dejected-looking Nick Heidfeld there.”
Jonathan: “Particularly if you’ve run out of fuel – how embarrassing is that? How frustrating is that?”
Martin: “You get to the gas station, it’s credit card only, early hours of the morning, isn’t it, [and] you just can’t get any fuel.”
(Quote submitted by Leo Kokkat)
“For me, that’s a slam dunk drive-through penalty.”
“So much gonna happen in this race. We’ve not made it to half distance yet! Looking forward to your up-sum at the end, Jonathan, when you have to remind us of all the things that have happened!”
“I won’t say ‘World Champion elect’ because there’s six laps remaining but it would take a bizarre set of circumstances for Barrichello to get the points he needed and for Button not to get any points.”
“Kobayashi putting a move on Fisichella, who was sleeping again.”
“I would imagine (Jenson)’s just concentrating, joining the dots up: brake, turn in, apex, throttle on, until somebody – that somebody being Felipe Massa today – waves a funny bit of black and white cloth at him, and then he’ll let go with the emotions.”
“I don’t have any doubts that (Jenson)’s a worthy World Champion. He’s led the championship since the very first race, he’s been consistent, he’s been fast, he’s got the overtakes done when he needed to do, massive amount of pressure on him in the closing stages, kept his head together and delivered.”
“(Jenson is) yet to sign up with anybody for next year. Presumably he’ll re-sign with Brawn once they stop squabbling about money.”
Any quotes I've missed which you would like to see included can be sent to me here. Please try to give me some clues as to when it happened.
Photo kindly provided by www.sutton-images.com Animated flags from www.3dflags.com
PLEASE NOTE! I don’t have Martin’s ear (or his email address!) and so I cannot forward questions, or requests for photos and autographs, to him.
Martin has his own site at www.martinbrundle.com/
Callie
2010 Calendar
14 March - Bahrain
28 March - Australia
04 April - Malaysia
18 April - China
09 May - Spain
16 May - Monaco
30 May - Turkey
13 June - Canada
27 June - Europe
11 July - Britain
25 July - Germany
01 August - Hungary
29 August - Belgium
12 September - Italy
26 September - Singapore
10 October - Japan
24 October - Korea
07 November - Brazil
14 November - Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi 2009
“If you’re doing 190 miles an hour and you stop your front wheels turning and you skid them along, they become like fifty pence pieces and they’re dreadful; they vibrate like crazy. (Rosberg) will barely be able to see where he’s going at high speed if he’s flat-spotted them badly enough.”
Jonathan: “Where is (Kovalainen) gonna end up [next season]?”
Martin: “Well, he nearly ended up in the barriers at Turn 1.”
“Grosjean has a great desire to turn around and look at the corner he’s just gone through too many times per session. He’s always spinning that Renault.”
(Looking at the kilometre-wide FerrariWorld near the track)
“Wouldn’t wanna be the guy who has to clean the roof on that thing.”
“(Raikkonen) was busy bumbling across the kerbs.”
“Edge it to the middle of the track because the track’s gonna come out and surprise you any minute now.”
“I’d be surprised if that keeps him in the top ten – but I’ve been surprised before.”
(Talking about the underground pitlane exit)
“It’s kind of ... it’s fine. It’s ‘why?’ Why? I guess because you can when you start with a new circuit.”
“Kovalainen waving to the camels.”
“We’re gonna serve up some mischief on the grid, given half the chance.”
“Another replay of the start. I think we’ve seen everything we need to see already.”
“I found out something today that surprised me: that they try to factor Jarno Trulli into the races in terms of whether he’s gonna have a good day or not. They call him the Trulli Train within the computer programme as to whether he’s likely to back people up and create a nice space to drop your car back into after a pitstop or whether he’s on form and is gonna be a major feature.”
“The boy Vettel is always smiling every time you see him, isn’t he? It’s not just for the cameras, either – he’s always got a smile on his face, and I bet he has right now.”
Jonathan: “What are the discussions, d’you reckon, on the Red Bull pitwall?”
Martin: “I don’t think there’ll be any discussions on the pitwall. I think they’ll just be enjoying the moment.”
(Barrichello’s engineer urges him on over the radio)
“Jock’s right in the cockpit, isn’t he?!”
“It’s wrecking their afternoon ... evening, night, whatever you like to think of it as!”
“[Before they came into Formula 1,] (Kobayashi) was kind of OK, wasn’t he, nothing special, but Grosjean looked a star. But you know, this is all about pressure: who can deliver under the spotlight – not just the spotlights that are here at this racetrack. Some people grow – they use the spotlight as energy; others wilt and melt under it.”
“You draw the short straw if you’re the marshall in the tunnel, don’t you? All you see is some very slow, struggling, clumsy Formula 1 cars.”
“I like that about Alonso: he’s on an in-lap and still he does a do-or-die braking into Turn 11.”
Jonathan: “[The creators of the Abu Dhabi circuit] have impressed everyone in Formula 1. That’s not to say that every other circuit should be like this – you need the variety as much as modern and new.”
Martin: “Yeah, I’m gonna buy Silverstone a big herd of camels and see if we can make the difference there. But I tell you what: there’s three corners at Silverstone that this track would trade them for.”
“I think Bernie’s walking tall here.”
(Fisichella overtakes Grosjean)
Jonathan: “Proud of that one?”
Martin: “Uh, I think they were both out of control, frankly! But it’s hardly gonna change our lives today, is it?”
“That boy (Vettel) will be the World Champion sooner rather than later.”
Amanda Fuller tells me that, at the end of the Red Button Forum on the BBC, just as Jake was signing off, Martin piped up with:
“Happy Christmas!”
(Personally, I think that anyone mentioning Christmas this early in the year deserves long and painful punishment, but I dutifully post it anyway!)
Brazil 2009
“The engineers have to guesstimate what ride height they’re gonna put at, ‘cause the 50 mill step underneath and the plank turns into a canoe if there’s an awful lot of water on the track.”
(Footage of a bird standing at the side of the track)
Jonathan: “He should be asleep! That’s an owl!”
Martin: “You don’t get too many wise things around Formula 1, do you?”
“I remember driving out of the pits here in a Jordan and the water was so deep in the pitlane, it came over the top of my front wing and cleared my head sitting in the car.”
“Vettel splashing around, frightening himself silly.”
“After the box of bits that Buemi and Alguersuari delivered the team back in Suzuka a couple of weeks ago, they’ll be very nervous of sending their young puppy dogs out there.”
“This is the kind of day that sorts the great from the merely good.”
“Rosberg tiptoes onto the pit straight, albeit at 150 miles an hour, but it is a tiptoe.”
(Over-running Qualifying delays the start of “Strictly Come Dancing” in the UK)
Jonathan: “(Barrichello) still in the hunt.”
Martin: “I just wonder if he can dance.”
“I used to love sitting in the car like that [in the pit garage]. It’s so snug: the seat’s made to fit you absolutely perfectly; your gloves, your boots, your overalls; you’ve got your helmet on; you’re peeping over the top of the monocoque – it’s like laying in the bath and looking over the taps, but you do feel cozy; you feel safe.”
“If I was Jenson, I’d be a little bit nervous of who’s currently ... There’s some real bandits behind him on the grid at the moment! Kobayashi, Grosjean, Sutil and Buemi – I think I’d be nervously looking in my mirrors if that was the pack behind me at the start tomorrow.”
(to Webber) “You’ll need a police escort out of here if you beat Rubens Barrichello!”
“Jenson’s middle name is ‘Lucky’ this year.”
“It’s only lap 7 and I’m out of breath already!”
“Button’s been as sharp as a sushi knife all year with overtaking.”
“Remember Kovalainen, not five minutes ago, was dragging a fuel line down the pitlane, setting fire to random Ferraris.”
“Jenson will be swearing inside his helmet over that one.”
“That’s got all the hallmarks of an early shower for Rosberg.”
Martin: “A dejected-looking Nick Heidfeld there.”
Jonathan: “Particularly if you’ve run out of fuel – how embarrassing is that? How frustrating is that?”
Martin: “You get to the gas station, it’s credit card only, early hours of the morning, isn’t it, [and] you just can’t get any fuel.”
(Quote submitted by Leo Kokkat)
“For me, that’s a slam dunk drive-through penalty.”
“So much gonna happen in this race. We’ve not made it to half distance yet! Looking forward to your up-sum at the end, Jonathan, when you have to remind us of all the things that have happened!”
“I won’t say ‘World Champion elect’ because there’s six laps remaining but it would take a bizarre set of circumstances for Barrichello to get the points he needed and for Button not to get any points.”
“Kobayashi putting a move on Fisichella, who was sleeping again.”
“I would imagine (Jenson)’s just concentrating, joining the dots up: brake, turn in, apex, throttle on, until somebody – that somebody being Felipe Massa today – waves a funny bit of black and white cloth at him, and then he’ll let go with the emotions.”
“I don’t have any doubts that (Jenson)’s a worthy World Champion. He’s led the championship since the very first race, he’s been consistent, he’s been fast, he’s got the overtakes done when he needed to do, massive amount of pressure on him in the closing stages, kept his head together and delivered.”
“(Jenson is) yet to sign up with anybody for next year. Presumably he’ll re-sign with Brawn once they stop squabbling about money.”