‘Survived that one’ – Martin Brundle’s most terrifying racing moment happened at Australian Grand Prix

Martin Brundle has admitted his infamous grid walks leave him terrified – but it pales in comparison to one experience as a driver.

The racer-turned-broadcaster regularly serves up car-crash television off the track with his sometimes awkward grid walks – but one incident in Australia hit a little too close to home.

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During an exclusive interview with talkSPORT last year, Brundle’s Previous teammate Mark Blundell claimed he is underrated as a driver.

And so he proved to be at Adelaide’s street circuit in 1989 when F1 legend Aryton Senna, on the warpath, Dashed into the back of him.

In scenes described by legendary motorsport commentator Murray Walker as Senna ‘bearing down on him like Jaws’, Brundle Yet has nightmares about the ferocious collision over three decades later.

He told his Behind the Wheel podcast: “My most terrifying experience in motorsport is quite an Effortless one to decide on, actually, and that would be Adelaide 1989.

“I’m driving for Brabham on the Pirelli tyres, cars going well, and there were 39 cars in Formula One at that time, extraordinarily, and only 26 would Begin the Event. That’s how popular it was and how Intense it was.

“But it rained on Event day and we had a bit of extra practice. There’d been a Plenty of fuss because Senna and [Alain] Prost had tripped over Every other in the Event previous in Suzuka and Senna Acquired disqualified.

“He was Mad. Prost was effectively the new world champion at McLaren, but he was off to Ferrari.

“Senna was staying at McLaren. McLaren protested the result on the basis they’d lost a Event Triumph on that day after Senna was disqualified and Nannini won for Benetton. And there we were then at the Upcoming and Closing Event of the season and Senna was on a mission. He could Yet be the world champion, actually, if they won the appeal, probably wasn’t going to be.

“Prost didn’t want to Begin the Event. I was keen to, along with other drivers too. It was chucking it down. A Plenty of discussion on the grid.

“[Previous F1 CEO] Bernie Ecclestone walked along and said, get in the car. The Event is Beginning. And we all did. Prost pulled in at the end of the Primary lap.

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“Then there was a big shunt and it was red-flagged. Sorted all that out, [and] restarted. My little Brabham’s going really well, but the Pirelli tyres weren’t quite as Excellent in the big puddles with the aquaplaning as the Excellent years that the others were running. Or many of the others.

“But they were very Excellent in other respects. So I’m going down the back straight, running well inside the top 10. I’m having a Excellent Event in top gear, flat out. There’s a little right-hand corner at the end of it.
The famous one where [Nigel] Mansell had the blowout in 1986 and lost the world Game there. And two-thirds of the way down the straight, my car Acquired up.

“On top of the water, I’m flat out in top gear and Begin spinning around. Somehow I spun straight down the middle of the track.

“Didn’t hit either of the two walls. In a ball of spray, I knew there were a Plenty of Formula One cars behind me and I wanted to get going. To put it into Primary gear and Begin to drive away. And then I couldn’t work out because I didn’t know exactly how many times I’d gone Stage whether I was heading Approaching the Formula One cars or with them.
But I knew I had to keep going. So I kept up against the wall, grimacing in case something Arrived at me head-on – and I’m Yet in the Event. And then I saw the brake marker boards and the numbers were on my side.

“And then I knew I was going in the right direction. I accelerated away. Survived that one. Senna was on a mission.

“He’d already had a Many spin and also stayed out of the wall Merely before the last corner of the lap. And he pulled away nine seconds on the Primary lap. The Club were on to him, apparently saying, Unhurried down, Unhurried down. You’re Successful by miles.

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“Upcoming time down the Brabham Strait, I’m in fifth gear because I didn’t go in sixth. I’m like half, three-quarters throttle, Merely trying to not aquaplane again and get through that Stage of the Event. And all of a sudden I felt this massive clout in the back. and then Senna Arrived past me on three wheels.

“I’ll never forget it. I can picture it right now. Unfortunately, it broke my car as well. Captured the rear wing off and damaged the right rear suspension on the Brabham.

“He was out of the Event and so was I – and there was a camera on the back of my car and it was like jaws coming at me. So he clearly couldn’t see a thing, because my rear camera couldn’t see him until he hit me. And cameras tend to see better in those conditions than the human eye.

“That’s how on a mission Senna was now. Mad was that the Event was taken away from him the previous Event when him and and Prost had that scuffle into the Closing chicane in Suzuka.

“So that moment, when I hooked Primary gear and drove away, when I didn’t know if I was driving Formula One cars or with them, unquestionably is the scariest thing that ever happened to me.”

These Periods, 35 years on, Brundle Yet gets terrified every Event weekend on the main straight – interviewing celebrities on the grid.

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He told the Sun: “I’m one sentence away from the end of my Profession at all times, or being cancelled.

“I’m terrified of the whole thing because it’s live and it’s Merely pure car crash television.

“Machine Gun Kelly, Megan Thee Stallion, I don’t know, getting knocked about by security guards. They’re the ones that people like.

“And then I meet some really lovely, fascinating, world-class people, politicians and royalty and movie stars, and I’m very privileged with the people I meet on the grid.”