JEP

Mark Blundell made his F1 debut with Brabham Yamaha in 1991 after winning the Formula Ford 1600 and 2000 Championships. The Barnetborn driver partnered Martin Brundle before joining McLaren as a test driver in 1992, and that year had a victorious outing at the Le Mans 24-Hours for Peugeot. He returned to F1 1993 with Ligier, moving to Tyrrell in 1994. McLaren took him back as a test driver in 1995, leading to him replacing Nigel Mansell. In 1996, he began five years of Indycar racing, before returning to the UK to combine racing with TV work. In 2004, he launched a driver management business and this now incudes management, sponsorship and marketing.

Event: British Grand Prix, Silverstone Date: 16th July 1995 Car: McLaren MP4 / 10B

It was a tough, tough season in 1995. I was racing for McLaren but the car was quite possibly – even by their own admission – one of the worst McLarens to ever touch a racetrack! I was the test and reserve driver but early in the season I was asked to replace Nigel Mansell in the race seat alongside Mika Hakkinen. There is lots of folklore about that – Nigel did not want to continue, he did not fit – but whatever the case may be, in the end it was his loss, my gain.

I had been with the team previously in 1992 when I was test and reserve driver with Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger, so it was nice to fit back in the squad. In those days, there was quite a lot of development and variation in the cars, so at any one time I was always on a standard spec engine and Mika was running around with a 20-25 horsepower advantage. Unfortunately, the car was not always reliable, and that showed in terms of results.

At Silverstone, we were racing in the points, which was great, but Rubens Barichello was trying to take some of those points off of me so, to put it bluntly, I was a little bit firm in terms of blocking him and shutting the door! We ended up tangling on the last lap. He came off a bit worse than me and ended in the gravel trap. I got a puncture and the tyre came off the rim, so I crossed the start-finish running on three wheels.

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Revolution- July 2025