Martin Brundle walking down the grid, giving a summary of what he witnesses before a race is a widely popular segment fans look forward to before a Grand Prix race. These grid walks started back in 1997 when Brundle started his commentary career with ITV. Lately, it has become a platform to interview celebrities who attend races, adding to the glamour in the sport.
The segment offers fans at home a glimpse into how much their favorite celebrities know about F1. Some even reveal their allegiances by naming their favorite drivers or teams.
While Brundle serves as the bridge between fans and celebrities, he has admitted he’s not particularly fond of the segment himself.
In a recent interview with Lucas Stewart, grandson of three-time world champion Sir Jackie Stewart, Brundle confessed that the grid walks annoy him. He explained that his personality is quite the opposite of what the role demands—going around and interrupting people isn’t really his thing.
“It’s not my natural persona to run up and interrupt people or be cheeky with people or whatever. It’s not me at all. It’s [grid walk] sort of turned into that. And you know, the grid walk annoys me, don’t you? You know, I don’t really like doing it for that reason,” he said.
Brundle revealed that in all his years of doing the grid walk, he has never gone back home and rewatched any of them. While he admitted that an odd snippet might occasionally land on his social media feed, he’s never searched for or watched one himself.
The ones that pop up on his feed are never the normal ones either. They’re always the awkward interactions where Brundle gets shot down by celebrities that end up going viral.
“I was sort of a half-tidy racing driver and a half-tidy broadcaster. And all I’m ever going to be remembered for is being ignored by Megan Thee Stallion, knocked about by a bodyguard, or not playing air guitar with Machine Gun Kelly,” Brundle regretted.
MGK storms off from ‘most awkward interview ever’ with Martin Brundle at Brazilian Grand Prix
MGK was left furious that he didn’t join him in a peculiar jam session and stormed off from the interview pic.twitter.com/1jo6cpsaJd
— Lilian Chan (@bestgug) November 6, 2023
Surprisingly, he’s able to laugh at those incidents now.
The 65-year-old particularly recalled why things got so awkward between him and MGK. Excited to see Brundle, MGK asked him to play air guitar with him. Unfortunately, Brundle was being directed by a group of producers to head to George Russell’s car immediately.
“That was quite funny because I have three people talking to me in my ear on the grid. And I’ve got my guys screaming, ‘In front of George Russell’s car, now! Loads of work going on. It looks like it’s a major problem.’
“[I] need to get down there now and Machine Gun Kelly was going like, ‘Let’s do air guitar,'” he recalled.
Ultimately, Brundle had to rush off, leaving MGK sulking.
While he believes these are the kinds of incidents people will remember him for, the former McLaren driver has made peace with that possibility.
