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[zurich_allan]

Just a short post. This was one of my personal favourite pairings of the 1990's, and I always found an intriguing one. Schumacher's first full season, and in a relatively competitive car.

Interesting to note that whilst Schumacher clearly beat Brundle in the standings at the end of the season, it took Brundle until the fifth race of the season to get off the mark, having had two mechanical failures and two driver errors in the first four races. After the first four races, Martin Brundle actually outscored Michael Schumacher in the remaining 12 races of the season by 38 points to 36....

So why do we really think that Brundle was not retained for 1993 at Benetton then?

I've always thought that Martin Brundle was a much underrated and underutilised driver, and personally think him and Schumi would have made a good team for another two or three years. A shame we never had the opportunity to see that.

[texasmr2]

I have always liked Brundle aswell but it just seemd he never had any luck for whatever reason it may have been, quite a shame really.

I really like this part of your siggy (Note - it is possible to like rivals!)!

[McLaren Fan]

I think Brundle was unlucky not to have won a couple of Grands Prix in his career. His performances in the races themselves were actually not bad. I recall him putting in a few good drives in his later days. His qualifying pace was very poor, though. If that were better, combined with his race pace, he'd have enjoyed a lot more success. Another thing about him was also that he did not seem to possess that spark of genius that great drivers had. With Senna, for example, even if he were in a poor car of if things weren't going entirely to plan, he could often make something happen through a stunning piece of driving skill or racecraft. The writing was on the wall for Brundle, in my view, when he moved to McLaren. The MP4/9, although not all that competitive, didn't have a clutch pedal, so left-foot braking could be done. Brundle stuck to the old-fashioned way, whereas Hakkinen used the new technique and said he felt it give him an extra two or three tenths of a second per lap over his team mate.

[zurich_allan]

I have always liked Brundle aswell but it just seemd he never had any luck for whatever reason it may have been, quite a shame really.

I really like this part of your siggy (Note - it is possible to like rivals!)!

Haha, yeah, I've never really understood the almost 'football like' logic applied in F1 that if you like one particular championship contender or driver, then you can't possibly also like their rival(s).

I liked both Prost and Senna, I liked Schumi and Mika, and I like both Hamilton and Alonso. Surely without one of the parties, we would never have legendary rivalries and feuds?? I for one am glad to remember and relive via vhs / dvd / youtube these excellent scraps.

And as for Brundle, I always thought that whilst he did have above average talent (he displayed that especially during his Ligier days, and sporadically at other teams), he wasn't quite up there. However I think he more than made up for that with good racecraft, anticipation and dedication. That was especially evident during his F3 runner up season, where I don't think many would argue that losing to Senna was like losing to anybody else.... lets face it, there aren't many if any people on their best days that could have finished ahead of Senna if he himself was having a good day. There is no shame in finishing runner up to a 3 time WDC.

[7UpJordan]

I think Brundle had a(n unsurprising) fallout with Flavio before the season was out. It was a big shame because whilst he didn't have as much luck as Schumacher, he put in some performances just as good - if not - greater than Schumacher. It kind of reminds me of Vettel and Bourdais at Toro Rosso last year. Brundle could have won at Montreal had his car not broken down, but his best performance in my view was at Silverstone where he cooly fended off Senna for almost the entire duration of the race, reminiscent of his battles with Senna in F3 9 years earlier. Whilst the crowd had turned out for Mansell-mania, they had even more to celebrate when Brundle finished 3rd.

[Jabberwocky]

TBH I always under rated Brundle until I read a book about Senna. Brundle was rated as Senna's equal it is just that he got a drive in a top team for his first years in F1 where as Senna learnt the craft in a back of the grid car. All was looking good for Brundle IMHO until he injured his legs in that accident (can not remember where) then by his own admission he did not have the strength or feel to drive an F1 car any more so he turned to sports cars and did rather well out of that.

[Gilles 27]

You sure you're not thinking of Herbert there...

IMO Brundle was hugely under rated and he's still got it. Not many people can jump into a modern F1 car and drive it round relatively quickly in the wet!