Far from giving a driver a leg up into motorsport, a famous surname can sometimes have the opposite effect and present bigger hurdles for a second-generation racer to overcome. That could have been true in Alex Brundle’s case as the Norfolk racer explains here.
After a limited karting background and a single-seater career that led him to podium finishes in Formula 2, Brundle reappraised his career just over a decade ago and stepped into the sportscar world. It has taken him to tackle some of the most iconic long-distances races in the world, including a debut at Le Mans alongside his race-winning father Martin.
Brundle Jr has been at the forefront of the class-based sportscar ranks for 10 years and has experienced some huge highs – as well as the frustrations – of a racer trying to make their mark.
While Martin has gone on to become the mainstay of the Sky Sports F1 coverage with his highly acclaimed insight and commentary, Brundle Jr has also become highly adept with his own stints at the microphone on Sky Sports’ coverage of FIA Formula 3 and Formula 2.
Indeed, he went to Le Mans this year and swapped the steering wheel for a media pass to become one of the main voices on the round-the-clock coverage of the French endurance classic.
Alex Brundle’s time behind the wheel isn’t done yet and he has reminded the wider world of his latent talents with some stunning runs at both the Goodwood Revival and the Goodwood Members’ Meetings – and there is a planned outing at the Silverstone Festival that he is particularly looking forward to this year.
We caught up with Alex shortly before he boarded a plane bound for Budapest last weekend, and we are very grateful for his generosity in terms of his time, and also for his insightful and full answers.
Question: Did your father try to talk you out of a career in motorsport?
James Hilton Via email AB: “No, he didn’t, but he also didn’t try to talk me into one either. It was very much me talking him into letting me have a motorsport career. I always said that it was a path which was a natural path for me and it was down to me and my choices to select my way out of it [which I didn’t]…
“Dad definitely didn’t talk me into it in any shape or form. In fact, it was quite the opposite when I was seven years old.”
MN: You didn’t have much of a karting background. Why was that?
“I did do some. We basically flat refused to pay the big bucks for karting. That was because mainly at the time I was very young and dad didn’t understand it: in fact, he made a great play of the fact he knew nothing about it. He, of course, had never done karting and he came up through grasstrack and short oval stuff. Everything was backwards on a kart, as far as he was concerned. I entered the local Whilton Mill club championship and I led the points at one stage – and that was probably the peak of my karting career! I won a few races there and it was me, a guy called Adrian helping me out and my dad when he could make it, and a van. That was it, I would pack up my little Tony Kart chassis, a junior Rotax engine and off we would go. It was a far
