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Martin Brundle tells all on how his famous F1 Grid Walk began

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3 weeks ago

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Ex-F1 driver and fan-favourite Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle has revealed the origin story of how his now famous grid walks began.

Before Brundle graced our screens during grands prix weekends, he was busy taking part in them as a driver, with Tyrell, Williams, Brabham, Benetton and McLaren among the teams he raced for.

Between 1984 and 1996, the Englishman picked up nine podiums and now imparts his motorsport knowledge with on-screen punditry for Sky Sports F1.

Though the 66-year-old is loved for his authoritative and authentic delivery, he also brings wit to the British broadcaster, and occasionally a touch or chaos thanks to his grid walks.

Sky Sports acquired the rights to Formula 1 in 2012 but secured the privilege of being the sport’s exclusive live broadcaster ahead of the 2019 championship. Since then, one thing that has become a mainstay of Sky’s F1 weekend coverage is Brundle’s grid walks.

The ex-F1 racer has even admitted he doesn’t enjoy orchestrating his famous grid interviews these days, and who can blame him when he’s been involved in so many awkward celebrity interactions as a result.

But how did a former driver find himself vying for celebrity and driver attention on live TV just minutes before lights out?

F1 HEADLINES: Verstappen stunned by Mercedes issue, team boss admits role unsustainable

How Brundle’s iconic F1 Grid Walk was born

During an interview with his Sky Sports colleague Natalie Pinkham, Brundle revealed that the grid walk segment first took place at the 1997 British Grand Prix, but he wasn’t working for Sky at the time and instead delivered his now famous segment to the ITV cameras at Silverstone.

His former team-mate and 11-time grand prix winner Rubens Barrichello was his first interviewee.

“He was my team-mate the year before. That’s why I probably felt he’d talk to me,” Brundle explained.

“That’s when drivers used to come up to me in the next year or two and go, ‘You haven’t spoken to me on the grid. Come and find me. Why are you not talking to me on the grid?’

“Now they just look at me like I’m a double glazing salesman or something, or an insurance salesman with his foot in the door.”

Asked if he could take credit for the grid walk format, Brundle revealed: “Wasn’t my idea. I was at ITV at the time, and they said to me, the producers, ‘We’ve got an idea. Why don’t you walk down the grid and say what you see?’ Like, ‘All right, I’ll give it a go.'”

Brundle went on to explain how he began his first grid walk by delivering his piece to camera from within the cockpit, offering a rare view to ITV’s audience in the days before public onboards of what an F1 driver sees when sitting down on the grid.

“That’s when cars used to drive to the grid,” Brundle continued. “They don’t now, they stop at the back and get pushed through because Niki Lauda used to come through, cut his engine and freewheel through, which was terrifying.

“It was dangerous. So now they all come through on trolleys, and I wanted to point out to people that you sit on the floor basically. I always say it’s like laying in the bath looking over the taps, is how it looks when you’re in a Formula 1 car.

“And then Keith, my cameraman back in those days, put the camera over my shoulder, and I think people liked that because we didn’t have many onboard cameras and all the sort of toys and tools we have today to see what the drivers are really doing, and data and what have you.”

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Lando Norris reveals honest take on F1 rival

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9 hours ago

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May 10, 2026

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2025 F1 world champion Lando Norris has opened up on F1 legend Lewis Hamilton‘s first world championship victory in 2008, revealing quite how awestruck he was by the moment.

Norris became the first British world champion since Hamilton last year, and has had the privilege of racing against and sharing the podium with the seven-time champion since he himself joined the grid back in 2019.

Hamilton is the most successful driver in F1 history, but his first title was arguably the hardest-fought title of his career.

After coming off the back of championship heartbreak in his rookie season in 2007 where he became within just a point of the title, Hamilton and his McLaren team faced a fierce challenge from Ferrari in 2008.

Heading into the final race of the season at Brazilian GP, Hamilton held a seven-point lead over Felipe Massa, and just needed to finish fifth to be sure of the championship.

But a rain-hit race threw up chaos for the Brit. On lap 69, he ran wide into the corner, allowing Toro Rosso youngster Sebastian Vettel to overtake him for fifth position.

With Massa leading the race, Hamilton spent the final laps desperately trying to get back past Vettel and into the spot that would hand him championship glory. When Massa crossed the line, Hamilton was down in sixth, and the Ferrari team went crazy with celebrations, thinking their man had won the 2008 championship.

But little did they know that rounding the penultimate turn at the track, Toyota’s Timo Glock was struggling for grip in the rain, and Hamilton took full advantage to fly past the German and into fifth, securing him the championship and leading to heartbreak for the Ferrari team and Brazilian crowd.

“This is the one where the commentators are going crazy,” Norris said in a video alongside Arsenal footballer Declan Rice. “It’s raining, he’s effectively not won the championship until one corner to go where he passes Glock which is one of the most famous videos ever in F1.

Explaining the 2008 machine to Rice, Norris said: “This is Lewis’ car, the one that crossed the line in Brazil and won him the championship. It’s pretty nuts to think that this is it. If I could, I would steal this any day.

“This was my first year watching F1. This was my first year and I was like ‘man this is sick, what is this?'”

F1 HEADLINES: Hamilton’s Ferrari fury, F1 star slams team strategy

Hamilton builds on 2008 success

Following 2008, Hamilton faced five seasons without adding another championship, but a move to Mercedes in 2013 opened up more opportunities for the Brit.

When the 2014 regulation changes came into force, Mercedes were the dominant team on the grid, and Hamilton managed to claim six of the next seven world championships.

It means that he holds the joint-record for the number of world championships in F1 history alongside Michael Schumacher, but holds the outright all-time records for the number of race wins, pole positions and podiums in the series.

The British F1 legend now finds himself at Ferrari trying to add to his various record-breaking tallies, but faces stiff competition from Norris at McLaren and his former Mercedes team.

LEWIS HAMILTON: Career record with every pole, win and title

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Max Verstappen delivers sensational lap to warm up for iconic Nurburgring showdown:

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2 days ago

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May 8, 2026

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Max Verstappen has once again showcased his incredible talents outside F1 with a brilliant testing display as he warms up for that 24 Hours race at the Nurburgring.

The 28-year-old may not be enjoying the new regulations in F1 in 2026, but he is loving every moment of his exploits away from the sport.

The four-time world champion has been racing regularly in NLS combat on the world-famous Nordschleife circuit at the Nurburgring. And on May 16 and 17 he will take on the brutal test that is the 24 Hours race at the German track.

Verstappen has also used his time globe trotting to get in some track time in Japan, taking to the iconic Fuji Speedway circuit driving a GT500 ca for the first time.

Driving a new car was not the only challenge facing Verstappen – the famous Japanese track was soaked in rain when he went out. But the results, as ever, were absolutely sensational for the Dutchman.

F1 HEADLINES:

Verstappen reacts to Fuji test

Verstappen said afterwards: “It was getting a bit tricky to push. My first lap, I was like, ‘I can do a bit better than that’ then I did a 42 then it really started raining and then some of those corners were quite tricky. It was getting used to the car, how you go on throttle and braking. The steering is very different and feeling the grip of the tyres.

“You can’t go straight over the rivers (of water) because the corners don’t let you do that. It was a really cool experience. Hopefully next time it is dry.”

Miyake meanwhile admitted: “I was curious to see how different his driving would be if we shared the same car. Although it was unfortunately raining this time, I was able to actually see how good he was, so I was really excited and had a great time.”

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Montoya turned down Ferrari move, because of Michael Schumacher

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3 days ago

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May 7, 2026

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Seven-time grand prix winner Juan Pablo Montoya has revealed that he once received an offer to join his fierce F1 rivals, Ferrari.

Montoya competed in F1 between 2001 and 2006, driving for McLaren and Williams during the era of Michael Schumacher’s glory years with Ferrari.

The legendary German racer picked up five of his seven drivers’ titles whilst racing with the Maranello-based squad, who operated under the watchful eye of Ross Brawn during the 2000s.

The Brit followed Schumacher to Ferrari from Benetton in the late 1990s and took up an instrumental role as technical director.

He is now best known for being the mastermind behind the dream team, which consisted of he and Schumacher, as well as Jean Todt and Rory Byrne. Together, they achieved six consecutive constructors’ championships and five back-to-back titles between 1999 and 2004.

Few drivers were willing to challenge Schumacher at the wheel of a Ferrari during that time, but Montoya was always credited for his fearless approach to on-track battles him.

But it turns out it was the German who kept Montoya from ever making a move to Ferrari.

F1 HEADLINES: Hamilton announces instant Ferrari change as champion sets out retirement terms

Should Ferrari ‘simplify’ F1 politics?

Speaking in a recent episode of the BBC’s F1 Chequered Flag Podcast after the Miami GP, Montoya said: “The crazy thing is when I was in F1, I looked at Ferrari and I never looked at it that way,” referring to the allure that seems to attract so many drivers to the Italian team despite them not winning a title of any kind since 2008.

The Colombian driver-turned-pundit then revealed that Brawn had even gone as far as to extend an offer for him to switch over to Ferrari during his career, but that he had turned it down instantly for one reason.

When asked by 1996 champion Damon Hill why he never felt the pull from Ferrari, Montoya explained: “I don’t know. Ross Brawn once came to me and said, ‘We would love if you ever race for us.’ And I said, ‘No, thank you.’ In hindsight, I go, ‘Oh my god, that was crazy.’

“I remember I came to the Williams meeting, I mean, after the race in Monza, and I told my engineer, [they] said, ‘How was it?’ I said, ‘Well, Ross Brown just said I should go to Ferrari.’ And [they] said, ‘What do you say?’ I said, ‘No, thank you.’ And they all looked at me like, ‘Oh my god, you’re crazy.'”

Montoya was then asked by commentator and co-host Harry Benjamin: “And you don’t regret that?”

To which the former McLaren star replied: “No, I didn’t want to have Michael as a team-mate because I didn’t want to be a second-tier driver.”

Though Montoya’s decline of Brawn’s offer appeared to shock many in F1 at the time, he is far from the only driver to admit that playing second fiddle to Schumacher offered little to no incentive to switch to the Scuderia.

Fellow former McLaren driver David Coulthard has previously spoken of sharing Montoya’s opinion.

Montoya later added that the driver politics in play at Ferrari have made it hard for many stars of the sport to perform within their ranks, suggesting it was time for a change in operations.

“The hard thing, and I think it’s getting a little better, is the amount of politics that are going on,” the 50-year-old said.

“It’s really hard to perform there when there’s so many opinions and so many layers. You know what I mean? I think nowadays big companies have so many layers of opinions and sometimes [to] simplify things makes a big difference.”

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton merely ‘surviving’ at Ferrari as F1 legend hit by chronic issue

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