MY MARK MOTORSPORT BLUNDELL
The McLaren MP4 / 10 was not the greatest of F1 cars, but Blundell was able to bring it home fifth at Silverstone
The pressure is always big at Silverstone when you are in F1 because it is the home crowd. It was great to mix with the fans, to feel that passion and support, and I think there was more engagement with fans back then. There is a lot more fan engagement online before you even get to doing the personal side now.
We were well represented as a country with talent back then and there is nothing better than seeing Union Jacks waving around, knowing that maybe a little bit of it was for you. Racing with a UK team, you also have great support from the huge number of people who work incredibly hard just to put the two cars on the racetrack on a Sunday afternoon. As a result, you try to give 110 percent there.
One year, that extra effort ended up with me having a big accident in the wet through Abbey. I had gone through the speed trap about 15mph quicker than anybody else and I did not stick on the road! It was a blind brow, and I remember starting to get out of the cockpit in the pouring rain and looking behind me to see the McLarens of Senna and Michael Andretti split me either side!
The 1995 race ended up being my last British Grand Prix. I was on a race-by-race contract with McLaren and that never really sat well with me, not having the long-term security. The team boss, Ron Dennis, felt that drivers perform better with that level of pressure. I disagreed – and in the end, that season turned out to be my final one in F1.
I got a bit disillusioned with F1 and went to Indycars in America. It was a good time to go. Nigel Mansell had just left, and it was a different and new experience. Oval racing is a different discipline. It is so fast – like Formula Ford 1600s on steroids!
After that, I came back to the UK and did seven years of live television with ITV and the F1 channel before starting a driver management business with Martin Brundle. Our services now extend to events, sponsor activation, acquisition, digital marketing and one of the biggest B2B networking programs in London. Motorsport still runs through the middle of things, but it is quite diverse in many ways. It turns out that being a race driver is always challenging, but the business world is no different.
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Revolution- July 2025