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Brundle & Brundle: Father and Son at LeMans

image-51814516-1024x768-1024x580 There are few sporting activities where fathers and sons can compete together; less still at an international level. Rolling the years back is just a dream for most, but sometimes dreams do come true... Alex Brundle Martin Brundle Le Mans Nissan Le Castellet This coming June, Martin and Alex Brundle will race together in France at the Le Mans 24 Hours as team mates - as well as being father and son. It is a dream come true for Martin. Martin Brundle is the veteran of 158 Grand Prix events, and these days is the face of Formula One in the UK, being lead presenter of of the new Sky F1 TV channel. He is respected as a real racer who pushed Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher to the limit during his time with them. Aside from these extraordinary achievements, Martin was also regarded as one of the world's leading endurance drivers, winning the 1988 World Sportscar Championship Driver’s title. Martin Brundle Le Mans Nissan 1997 During his career, Martin Brundle has raced as a factory driver for Jaguar (winning Le Mans with them in 1990), as well as Nissan, Toyota and Bentley. Alex Brundle Greaves Motorsport Nissan Alex Brundle, just 21 years old, is at the other end of his career, combining a single seat campaign in GP3, a support series to Formula One, with his first steps in the world of Endurance Racing. In that arena he is running with Greaves Motorsport in a Nissan powered Zytek prototype. It is this car that the two of them will share in the classic French motor race. I caught up with Martin recently and asked him about the prospects for the race and his motivation in doing it. Alex Brundle Martin Brundle Le Mans Nissan Why are you going back to Le Mans after over 10 years away? I want to enjoy racing with my son - a special privilege while I have this window of opportunity. More importantly, we want to be competitive. Alex has a great opportunity in the European Le Mans Series to get podiums and even wins. I guess that we have to go to Le Mans, where I join the team, with the aim of winning the class and to finish as high in the race as we can. Of course that is easy to say, but I am sure it will difficult to achieve, as there are something like 18 cars in LM P2 class. We have our own race within a race. It will certainly be a different experience for me, as I have driven at Le Mans eight times, but only ever as the lead driver in a factory car... and usually the fastest car! I have been on pole position and have always been in a car that had potential to win, but obviously this is not going to be the case this year. So to have Audis and Toyotas coming past me will be interesting, as I have always been the aggressor... but this time i will be the one looking in the mirrors. The aim is to be competitive and also to enjoy it. Alex Brundle Martin Brundle Le Mans Nissan I have always raced at Le Mans in a coupe before, so being in an open top sports car will be a bit strange. I have raced in Radicals but nothing quite like this. One thing that will be different - I won’t get so hot as in the past. I can recall the cockpit temperatures reaching over 50C, which is not a healthy place to be. Alex Brundle Martin Brundle Le Mans Nissan Snetterton Also, the open car avoids all the perennial problems with curved windscreens, wipers that don’t work, fogging up and poor visibility. Of course what I am not looking forward to is it raining and being stuck behind a Safety Car for an hour or two, being cold and wet. Alex Brundle Martin Brundle Le Mans Nissan Le Castellet You raced at the highest levels in both Formula One and in Endurance racing. What are the different qualities and approaches to each type of competition? Well, in Formula One you are on your own; whereas in sports cars it is a completely different philosophy of going racing. You have to work with your team mate; you have to leave your ego behind. Of course you still want to win but you have to win together. You have to be honest with each other; if you hit something or go off the road, you have to declare it. In Formula One the first target, every morning you get up, is to beat your team mate, However, in endurance racing, the target should be to work even more closely with your driving partner. Alex Brundle Martin Brundle Le Mans Nissan Le Castellet One other thing that I really loved was that you can do many more laps in an endurance race. You get into a rhythm; a comfort zone in the car that you can’t do in single seaters. You can’t go out and drive for two or three hours and then get back in and do it all over again. It is a very different discipline. I had ten podiums in Formula One but my key successes in motorsport have all been in sports cars. I think I've won eighteen top level endurance races, including Le Mans and Daytona, so I am looking forward to going back. It is a chance that I was not expecting. Martin Brundle Alex Brundle Nissan Greaves Motorsport Snetterton Test You are racing with Alex, your son. Are you able to advise him? Actually we are learning from each other, all the time. He can tell me the latest techniques for braking. He uses expressions like ‘rotating the car in a corner,’ ‘braking profiles’ and all this new jargon that is strange to me. He is also able to help me with the data, to analyse what it all means. Of course I have learned many things along the way (usually the hard way) so I try to pass that on to help him avoid such mistakes. It is very much a joint venture though, I am learning from him and he is learning from me. I have managed other drivers, I have observed the sport closely since I retired from Formula One, I think now I am better technically that when I was in Formula One. I hope that I can help Alex with my experience at Le Mans in the past. It is a scary race track; it is for real. You don’t have small incidents at Le Mans. I remember when I had a tyre blow out in 1999, while driving the Toyota. The telemetry showed that I was doing 333kph! 333! That was really scary. Martin Brundle Alex Brundle Greaves Motorsport Nissan What I have realised is that sharing the car with him in preparation for Le Mans is only part of the pleasure of doing this. We are in the gym training together, we deal with the media together, deal with sponsors, the travel, worrying about the set up of the car, all of the aspects that make up the life of a racing driver. It brings us closer. I thought the race would be 95 percent of the story, but it is more like 5 percent; that is what I am really enjoying. I hope that this is the beginning of a career as a professional sports car driver for Alex. It is in our plans. Alex Brundle Martin Brundle Le Mans Nissan Le Castellet For this year he has a good opportunity especially in the ELMS. He has a very good team in Greaves Motorsport, combined with the Nissan engine and the Zytek chassis. His team mate, Tom Kimber-Smith, is the current champion, and Alex can learn a lot from him. The whole effort is a great combination, a recipe for success. Alex Brundle Martin Brundle Le Mans Nissan Le Castellet Would you consider doing more races, assuming that all goes well? Yes, I would love to... but it is difficult to fit anything in around my F1 schedule and other commitments. In my mind, I am 35, but my passport says 52... so perhaps I am imagining things that I cannot actually deliver. I know that I am not slow; I was driving a 2010 Ferrari F1 car at Fiorano this week and managed a respectable pace, so some speed is still there. We will see how much. Martin Brundle Le Mans Jaguar Silk Cut Martin Brundle win LeMans podium Le Mans What does Le Mans mean to you? Well winning in 1990 was something of a highlight, but I led the race on many occasions - with Nissan, Toyota and Bentley but struggled to finish, it is a very tough race and you need a bit of good luck. Untitledgg 5 638 Standing on the podium in 1990 and seeing all the Jaguar fans celebrating is very special to me. The atmosphere of Le Mans was, and is, very special. I am getting to go the world's greatest race and drive with my son. It really does not get any better than that. - John Brooks
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