We catch up with former Formula 1 driver and current F1 commentator Martin Brundle at the Dubai unveiling of the Infiniti FX Vettel Edition and talk about his past, present, future, and what Bernie Ecclestone is really like.
You seem to have worn a lot of hats since your racing career took a slight back step. Run us through what you’re doing these days.
Well today I was in Dubai anyway so they [Infiniti] asked me if I’d drop by and help MC, which I was happy to do [pictured below]. My main role is television and has been for 16 years now. I race a bit – I raced Le Mans this year with my son – and I managed David Coulthard for 11 years until he stopped. I had a management company but when David stopped I got out of management and managed myself a bit, started to focus more on myself and my son Alex (pictured top with Martin and Nissan driver Lucas Ordonez).
As Michael Schumacher found out, and many [former drivers] do, you can’t be a competitive person and a reasonably high achiever and then overnight just switch it off when you’re in your mid-30s. You’ve got a lot of energy, a lot of contacts and we all become adrenaline junkies as racing drivers because you deliver something every day of your life, you measure it every day in quite an extreme way. I’m lucky in that I can do what I fancy doing and I love travelling the world. Formula 1 is like my second family really. Next year I’ll do my 500th Grand Prix. I did 158 races as a driver.
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Talking about adrenaline, having you found anything that gives you the same satisfaction that you got from racing?
No, I much preferred driving racing cars, but walking up and down the grid, when they throw to you live, you get that little rush of adrenaline. Live TV is one of the best replacements. I fly helicopters and ride my bikes and all sorts of silly things, but that’s a bit of a replacement for the real thing.
You mentioned Le Mans and we saw you race at the Daytona 24 Hours in 2011. Are we going to see you do anything else?
Daytona was an opportunity that got me back in the groove for driving again and I loved it. Le Mans was a chance to do it with my son and if it happens again I’ll do it, yeah. I did the Silverstone 6 Hours as well and I really felt like I’d never been away. I’d last raced at Silverstone 21 years earlier or something.
Did you get straight back into it?
The first test I did at Paul Ricard in the LMP2 car was a bit scratchy. It took me probably 20 laps to calm down and start letting the car do its work. It’s a bit like riding a bike or swimming, you never forget how to do it.
You’ve talked before about how the difference between a good driver and a great driver is about half a percent. Do you instantly get that little bit back that made you so good in the first place?
Quite quickly. I always felt invincible in a sports car. I won a lot of races. I never felt that invincibility in a single seater. I was on the podium 10 times in F1 and did pretty well but not well enough.
How long does it take to get it back? You don’t lose the speed, you lose the need, and I haven’t lost that really. There are some, when I went back to Le Mans, that said ‘what are you doing?’. Damon Hill and some other very successful racing drivers said ‘you’re crazy, why are you taking that risk?’. Conversely, I look at them and think ‘how can you not want to race any more?’. I doesn’t add up for me that you can how you can have so much success and so much pleasure in doing something and then say ‘I never want to do that ever again’. It makes no sense to me.
Michael Schumacher has said that he’s finished with racing, that he’s not going to do anything else after F1. Do you believe that?
He won’t come back to F1. But Michael’s done 650 skydives. He’ll find other ways to get his adrenaline fix. Last time he started racing motorbikes until he nearly broke his neck. If you’re hard-wired to compete, no matter how much money you have in the bank, or how many championships you’ve got in your pocket, you can’t [turn it off]. Motorsport, and all sport, is about tomorrow. You soon get forgotten. Jarno Trulli was a Formula 1 driver last season, for example, and a very good one. And he just disappeared, dropped off the radar. That’s why Damon Hill is now doing TV with me. Suddenly he wants to be involved again.
You had dinner with Bernie Ecclestone this week. What’s that like, what kind of conversations do you have with him?
He’s really good company and as sharp as they come. He’s more chatty than he is in front of the cameras. You have to pay careful attention to what Bernie says because he’s very straightforward; ask him a direct question and you’ll get a very direct answer. He’s been there, seen it and done it and he’s fascinating. You forget how long he’s been in the business and on the scene. It’s a pity he can’t do a book that tells it all. That would be quite a book, wouldn’t it?
Do you get on with him on a personal level?
You must never make the mistake of thinking that you’re close to him or that he needs you, because he doesn’t and you’re not. I’ve seen over the 30 years that I’ve been around him a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that they’re close to him. But listen, he’s a busy man.
