Speaking at the Autocar Awards in London this week, Martin Brundle confirmed what we all suspected - he will be part of the BBC’s F1 commentary team next season (and, presumably, throughout the station’s five-year contract as Britain’s official F1 broadcaster).
“I’m delighted to be able to tell you all that I’ll be joining the BBC next year,” Brundle said.
“I’ve been commentating on Formula One for the past dozen years, and I briefly considered calling it a day. But in the end I decided to take up the BBC’s offer and I’m now very excited about working for them next year.”
Excellent, Smithers. We won’t miss the puppyish James Allen or cheesy Steve Rider, both of whom have a whiff of Alan Partridge about them, but we would have missed the excellent Brundle.
Crasher bonus! Watch Brundle’s last grid walk for ITV, made before this year’s heart-stopping Brazilian Grand Prix:
Nando shows you how to tackle Brazilian GP circuit
This is what Lewis Hamilton, Felipe Massa and co. face this weekend. You’ve watched Alonso drive it. Now here’s what he thinks of it:
“It is very bumpy; you have to have suspension that allows you to drive hard whilst not being too uncomfortable. There are some great corners that you really get to attack, and all the elevation changes make it interesting for the drivers.
“Interlagos is quite a short circuit at 4.3km but it offers the prospect of great racing with lots of overtaking, especially going into the tricky turn one. The track is normally pretty dirty when we get there on the Friday but it gets quicker and quicker during the weekend.”
With rain forecast, organisers of the season-closing Brazilian Grand Prix have also added grooves to three sections of the Interlagos circuit to improve drainage ahead of the race weekend.
Beeb’s coverage to be elivened by authentic Irish craic?
Our F1 mole tells us that Eddie Jordan, pictured above with Emma Noble, Page 3 model Melinda Messenger (remember her?) and Jordan (no relation), has been signed up to be part of the BBC’s F1 team for next season.
When asked about the speculation by the Daily Express, Jordan - the speccy Irish guy, not the glamour model - declined to comment - which is all the evidence we need.
Jordan - the speccy Irish guy, not the glamour model - would make a fine pundit. He’s outspoken, articulate, well-informed and has great access to the major players in F1. Good shout, Auntie.
ITV’s Martin Brundle is one of the sharpest motorsport broadcasters working today, so it’s no surprise that the BBC poached him to be part of its commentary team for 2009. But it’s not only ITV who aren’t happy at Brundle’s transfer. According to The Daily Mail, the FIA is unhappy with the move:
“It is the talk of the F1 paddock that Alan Donnelly, the official representative at races of FIA chairman Max Mosley, has been trying to dissuade BBC executives from employing Brundle, who has been at odds with the governing body since he questioned their handling of last year’s McLaren Spygate affair.”
Brundle has never been afraid to speak out on sensitive topics, and he does have a long relationship with McLaren, but it seems ridiculous that the FIA would view him as a partisan trouble-maker.
Mr Ecclestone’s terribly posh eldest daughter could have easily whiled away the days until she received her massive inheritance with lads mag photoshoots, fashionable parties and abhorrent boyfriends. To her credit, however, Tamara has all but shunned the Paris Hilton route in favour of earning her own crust: the 24-year-old beauty has landed a string of TV presenting jobs, most recently as a pit reporter for Sky Italia, on which she rabbits away in Italian, one of three languages she speaks fluently.
Tamara also jumped on the get naked for a good cause bandwagon by dropping her kecks in the name of PETA. More pictures and fabulously entertaining information after the jump…
Soon-to-be ex-F1 driver David Coulthard has already got his next job lined up. Instead of causing crashes in Formula One races he will now be talking about them. DC has been confirmed as a studio pundit for the BBC’s coverage of the 2009 F1 season. Grid Crasherpredicted a job for the Scot way back in July, but we don’t like to be big-chinned big-headed about it.
F1 star keeps us up-to-date with pre-race bowel movements
When Martin Brundle began this interview with Kimi Raikkonen with an inquiry about the Finn missing Pele’s appearance on the grid, there was a suggestion that the prima dona racing driver had thought he was too important to go to meet the footballer. But Raikkonen soon proves he is fairly down to earth…
Random stuff we found by the side of the internet…
• First test drive of the all-new Ford Mustang KITT (pictured), star of the forthcoming Knight Rider movie. Does it still have a “Turbo Boost” button? Jalopnik has the answer.
The best of the rest:
• Is there a future for Nascar’s “Car of Tomorrow”? [Sports Illustrated]
• For the last time this season, Martin Brundle answers a whole lot of F1-related questions [ITV]
• Top 10 vehicles made out of Lego [Le Blog Moto]
