Formula 1 fans hoping for a gloriously chaotic grid walk at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix will be left disappointed. The star and ex-F1 racer’s pre-race walks have become the stuff of legend since he started performing them for back in 1997, producing an abundance of hilarious and awkward moments over the years.
However, with the F1 calendar swelling to 24 grand prix, the 65-year-old doesn’t attend every race weekend. Brundle will miss eight rounds this season, including round seven at Imola, the first of a triple-header including Monaco and Spain. The 16-race limit is part of the new contract Brundle recently agreed with Sky, who have been trimming costs amid bloated schedule.
Even at the races he does attend, Brundle isn’t duty-bound to undertake a grid walk every time. Under the terms of his contracts with broadcasters over the years, he performs a grid walk at three out of every four races he attends.
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Despite the popularity of his grid walks among fans, who often complain when they are missing from a race weekend, Brundle himself isn’t a fan. As he collected his OBE from the Prince of Wales this week for his services to motorsport and broadcasting, he told Sky Sports: “We get in amongst it.
“The grid gets very busy. There must have been a thousand people on there in Vegas. I can’t see anybody half the time, I can’t see an F1 car sometimes! Because it’s a bit edgy - and sometimes we failed miserably - people are living it whether I’m having a good day or a bad day.
“I’ve never watched one in 27 years of doing it because it’s not my natural habitat, to run around being cheeky and interrupting people. But it’s grown a life of its own.”
Brundle was a proud man after picking up his gong from but was quick to pay tribute to his Sky Sports colleagues He said: “It made me feel very lucky and very privileged.
“As always with something like this, you receive on behalf of an awful lot of other people because either they were designing and creating and fixing my racing cars, or working with us in the broadcasting industry.
"You can't do anything on your own at the level of . I've been very lucky to have two careers in F1 as a driver and a broadcaster, which this award has been presented for. When the letter came through just before , I was ecstatic."
Another familiar voice missing from Sky's F1 coverage this weekend is regular commentator David Croft, who, like last year, is set to miss occasional races this year. He has been replaced by Harry Benjamin, Five Live's regular F1 commentator.
Natalie Pinkham is fronting Sky's coverage from the iconic Italian circuit, with Ted Kravtiz on reporting duty. Jacques Villeneuve, 1997 champion, and top female racer Jamie Chadwick are part of Sky's punditry team.
