Balance is how the car “feels” in a turn—whether it sticks and stays predictable. If the car is balanced, it’s easier to steer and you don’t feel like it’s sliding or fighting you.
Car
Formula Ford
Formula Ford is a training series for young race drivers. It’s a stepping stone where you learn how to control a race car before moving up to bigger, faster categories.
Formula 4 is a stepping-stone racing series for younger drivers. “1600” points to the smaller engine size (about 1.6 liters) used to keep the cars more even and affordable.
Topic
Snatterton
Snatterton is the name of a race track where he went to watch a local club event. Those kinds of smaller races often spark people’s interest in racing.
Concept
club event
A “club event” is a local, organized racing day run by a motorsport group. It’s usually smaller than the big professional series, and it’s a common starting point for future racers.
“Throwing a rod” is when an engine’s internal metal rod breaks and punches out of the engine. It usually means the engine is badly damaged and can’t keep running.
The Ford Festiva is a small car designed to be affordable and easy to drive. People sometimes use cars like this for events because they’re usually cheaper to own and maintain. It’s not a special “race car” from the factory, but it can be used for track or festival activities.
Straight-line testing means running the car mainly in a straight path to check things like acceleration and speed. It helps teams understand the car’s baseline performance before tackling cornering tests.
Mechanical injection is an older way of delivering fuel to the engine using mechanical parts instead of computers. It affects how the car responds and how you tune it.
A test and reserve driver is basically a backup race driver who also helps the team learn and improve the car. If the regular driver can’t race, the reserve driver can take over.
Frank Williams was the key leader behind the Williams F1 team. Mark Blundell is saying he met him to get a chance with the team.
Company
Middlebridge F3000 team
Middlebridge was a team in Formula 3000, which is a stepping-stone series for drivers aiming for F1. Mark Blundell says he raced there for John McDonald.
Brabham is another Formula 1 racing team. Mark Blundell says he switched to them after doing testing, but he thinks the move didn’t work out as well as it could have.
A Grand Prix driver is a driver who competes in Formula 1 races (Grand Prix events). In the context of this conversation, it’s the step up from testing/reserve work to actually racing on race weekends.
In a “fully active” race car, the car uses electronics to help control how it drives while you’re steering and braking. The goal is to keep it stable and planted so the driver can focus on going fast.
A semi-automatic gearbox makes gear changes faster and easier by using electronics to do the clutching for you. You still control when to shift, but the car handles the mechanical action.
“Pitch” is how the car tips forward or backward. If it stays in a steady pitch, the car feels very stable and doesn’t bob around as much when you brake or turn.
Throttle is how much engine power you’re asking for. More throttle usually means more acceleration, but in a race car you can only use it effectively if the tires have enough grip.
Aerodynamics are “efficient” when the car is shaped to create strong grip without slowing down too much. In practice, that helps the car stick to the road in corners.
Car
Williams FW14B
The Williams FW14B is a specific Formula 1 race car Mark Blundell tested. In F1, testing helps the team fine-tune the car so it can be faster on race day.
“Race tyres” are the tires used during the actual race. They’re designed to last and keep working well for many laps, which affects how fast the car can go.
“Qualifying tyres” are tires meant for the fastest laps over a short time. They can feel grippier, but they’re not always meant to last as long as race tyres.
A “podium” in racing means finishing a race in the top three positions (first, second, or third). Blundell notes he had three podiums, and that each came alongside drivers who were world champions or future world champions.
In top-level motorsport, “engine spec” refers to the specific configuration and performance level of the engine package a team or driver is allowed to use. Even small differences in power output—like being 15–25 horsepower down—can strongly affect qualifying pace and race competitiveness.
Pit lane is the special lane next to the race track where teams bring the car in to do things like tires and refueling. Drivers have to enter and leave it under strict rules.
To “out-qualify” a teammate means to set a faster qualifying lap time and finish ahead of them in the qualifying results. In Formula racing, qualifying position can heavily influence race strategy because it affects track position at the start.
Left foot braking means using your left foot for the brake pedal while your right foot can stay on the gas. Some drivers think it helps them be smoother and quicker when slowing down and then accelerating again.
Right foot braking means you use the same foot (the right one) for both the brake and the gas. Many drivers are used to it, but some say left-foot braking can be quicker when you’re switching between the two.
Company
Mr Dennis
“Mr Dennis” is a team leader who could give instructions to drivers during the race. The radio call about moving over is an example of team orders affecting who goes first.
A “marginal gain” means a small improvement. In racing, even tiny changes can help you go faster or lose less time, and that can matter a lot when the competition is close.
An “engine lease deal” is an arrangement where a team or driver gets access to an engine (often from a manufacturer) for a period, typically with commercial terms that may differ from a full factory supply. In racing, this can be a practical way to secure competitive powertrains when switching series.
PacWest Racing is a racing team in IndyCar. Blundell says he worked out a deal with them when he went to race in America.
Company
Merck
Here, “Merck” is being mentioned as the company behind an engine deal for the race team. It affected what engines they were allowed to use and when.
Company
Kozloff
Kozloff is mentioned as part of a contract that limited which engine program the team could use at the time. It’s more about the deal than the car hardware itself.
In racing, a “yellow” means caution—there’s something on track and drivers have to slow down. It can affect tire temperatures and when teams decide to pit.
“Vibration” means the car starts shaking noticeably. In racing, that can be a warning that something is wrong with the tires or grip, so drivers take it seriously.
They’re telling a story about a crash in Rio de Janeiro. The key point is that the brakes failed, and because the barriers weren’t the right kind, it became a very dangerous situation.
A waiver is a legal form you sign that says you understand the risks. In racing, it can also spell out who’s responsible for things like tires and parts supplied by other companies.
Stress testing means putting a part through tough conditions to see if it can handle the forces it’ll face in racing. If it’s not stress-tested properly, it might fail at the worst time.
The hub is the part the wheel and brake system connect to. If something goes wrong there, the brakes may not work properly—especially dangerous at high speed.
In track terminology, the apron is the paved area near the pit lane or track edge that drivers may use to slow down or reposition. It’s distinct from the racing surface and often has different runoff characteristics.
“g” is a way to measure how hard something accelerates or slows down compared to gravity. “122 g” means the crash forces were extremely high—like getting hit with a huge deceleration.
A monocoque is the main “safety shell” of the car that holds the driver and takes the crash loads. Instead of a separate frame, the body structure itself does the heavy lifting.
Seat belts are the harnesses that keep the driver from moving too much during a crash. In racing cars, they’re set up very specifically so the driver stays in the right position.
An MRI is a medical scan that helps doctors see inside your body, especially soft tissues. It’s used here to look for injuries after the crash.
Term
CAT scan
A CAT scan is an imaging test that takes detailed pictures of the inside of your body. After a serious crash, doctors use it to check for internal damage.
Concept
altitude pressure
“Altitude pressure” is the air pressure you get at high altitude, and it’s lower than at sea level. Lower pressure can make things behave differently, which is why the speaker is worried about a device bursting.
A super speedway is a huge oval race track where cars go extremely fast. Since it’s so fast and so different from smaller tracks, drivers usually need a few laps to get comfortable.
A “two-mile oval” means the track is about two miles all the way around in an oval shape. Longer ovals usually let cars keep high speed for longer, so the driving feels different.
“Pitted” means the race car pulled into the pit lane for a planned stop. What happens there depends on the race, but it’s usually to service the car and follow the strategy.
A qualifying car is set up to be as fast as possible for the qualifying session, not to last for the whole race. Think of it like a “best lap” setup rather than a “finish the race” setup.
A dyno test is when the engine is run on a machine to measure its power. It’s useful, but it doesn’t fully replicate what happens once the engine is installed in a real car on track.
Overboosting means the turbo is pushing more pressure than the engine is supposed to handle. If it happens, the team may have to back off or stop the car to avoid damage or a safety shutdown.
The “twilight zone” is a time near dusk when track conditions change fast. Cooler air and some moisture can change how much grip the tires get and how the car runs.
Term
fires me gearbox
When the driver applies power, the car’s powertrain has to transfer that force through the gearbox. If the wheels are spinning, the car can feel like it’s not hooking up cleanly.
Wheelspin is when the tires lose grip and spin without moving the car forward as effectively. If it happens in a higher gear, it usually means the car is trying to put down more power than the road surface can handle.
Chicanes are twisty, slower sections made to slow cars down. On the Mulsanne area, they interrupt the long straight, so you have to brake and change direction a lot, affecting speed and tire life.
Reference laps are “practice laps” that teach you how the car feels. If you don’t have them, you’re not sure how much grip you have, so braking and turning can be a gamble.
Pole position is the fastest qualifying spot. The “margin” is how much quicker the pole car was compared to everyone else.
Term
piston out of the engine
A piston is a moving part inside the engine that gets pushed by combustion and helps turn the crankshaft. Taking one out usually means the engine was opened up for inspection or to keep a piece from the car.
Pole position means your car starts at the very front of the starting grid. It’s a big advantage because you avoid getting stuck in traffic right after the race begins.
McLaren is a well-known racing team. Here it’s mentioned as the place the driver was working before moving into the Le Mans/IndyCar-style opportunities.
Le Mans is a race that lasts 24 hours. Since it goes on all day, the teams have to keep the car running reliably, not just be quick for a short time.
Term
technical failures
“Technical failures” means the car had a problem—mechanical or electrical—that hurt its ability to race. In a long race like Le Mans, even small problems can become big quickly.
Battery terminals are the connection points that carry power from the battery to the car. If those connections have an issue, the car can lose power or behave unpredictably—bad news in a 24-hour race.
Endurance racing is long-distance racing where you have to keep the car going for a long time. It’s about finishing the race with the car still in good shape, not just going as fast as possible for a few minutes.
Front-wheel drive means the front wheels do the work of moving the car. It can feel different in how the car turns and accelerates, so some drivers struggle if they’re not used to it.
Understeer is when you turn the wheel and the car doesn’t rotate enough, so it tends to go wide. In racing, you can reduce it by changing how you steer and how you use the throttle as you exit the turn.
Rear-wheel drive means the back wheels provide the power. Since the front wheels mainly steer, the driver can often control the car’s balance more smoothly with throttle as the corner ends.
BTCC (British Touring Car Championship) is a top UK touring-car series. The speaker references running a team in BTCC, which is a different discipline from open-wheel racing but still heavily dependent on setup, tire management, and driver coaching.
Mark London Partners is the speaker’s motorsport business. They manage drivers and are involved with a touring-car team.
LIVE
Welcome, Mark. So we were just chatting behind here, and we believe that you hold the distinction
among F1 drivers. You're the only F1 driver ever whose first home was a caravan.
Correct.
Yeah.
Static home, I should think.
Yeah, a static mobile home just to be factually correct, yeah. So that was my first home.
It was actually located, if anyone's from the Barnett area, Mill Hill, there used to
be two Ford dealerships, actually, Godfrey Davies Ford dealerships that were either side
of the A1. And one of the sites had a static mobile home park. And my late father, that
was his first home with my mother. And actually, I think I didn't even have a cot. I had the
bottom drawer of a chest of drawers. That's where I started life. So, yeah. I mean, yeah,
keeping it real.
So the subtext here is that it's unusual for someone from a very, very humble background
to go on to...
From the bottom drawer of a chest of drawers.
To the top, from the bottom to the top.
Well, I only had four drawers to go up, so it wasn't too bad, yeah. Yeah. So, listen,
I mean, that was the background. We actually gravitated down the A1 corridor. And actually,
my first house was on a council estate, which I remember very well, in Letchworth Garden
City, the Jackman's estate. And that's probably where I got my affinity with two-wheels, because
I remember as a kid, that's all I ever did without my bike until it got stolen. So, yeah,
it was definitely a council estate.
We're going to get on to your perhaps lesser-known two-wheel career in a minute. Just doing the
sort of research for this, your dad was clearly a remarkable man. And just sort of fill us
in. Tell us a bit about who was he? What was he like?
Listen, my dad was a remarkable man to me. He's not with us anymore, but he left school
when he was 13 years old. He couldn't read or write. My mother taught him how to read
and write. He was a very sharp person in terms of understanding how to put a deal together.
And I mean that by like joining dots. He was super smart at seeing something and putting
several things over his career in play, which were, for me, astounding. But I think what he
put into me was just values of how you treat people. And I think that's always stuck with me
is a big thing, which even today is something I really sort of look back on and cherish because
there's not anywhere in my motorsport career that I can't walk back through the doors.
And that means a lot to me. And not everyone can say that.
Yeah, no, and it means a lot to me. But I get that from my dad. But listen, he's someone
like I think about every day. But when I look back and I think like some of the things that he did
was quite remarkable and actually way in front of his time.
So what was his line of business? What did he do? How did he manage to be successful?
His actual career is in terms of profession. He started as a panel beater and sprayer.
So that's where he got his sort of apprenticeship put to bed. And of course from that, because he
was repairing cars, he'd repair his first car, which he had bought off of his salary. He'd then
sell it for a small profit. And then that went into more cars. And then eventually he bought his
first garage. And that's where the whole thing came from. So as a boy of eight years old, I was
already driving cars sitting on cushions. And I think by nine years old, I was already crashing cars.
So yeah, that was basically where it came in. He was a secondhand car dealer. And that was the
foundation of was he around a lot in your childhood? Or was he always away working doing stuff?
Well, my dad was actually one of those guys was a workaholic. So I never really saw him
in the morning or at night. Catch him a couple of times at the weekend until I got to about 13
or 14. And actually the sport the motocross was where it really engaged us as a family unit to
get to spend more time together, because he was always working. And that was the essence of it.
But he was around a lot in my early stages of my career. And actually a gentleman who's with me
today, James, I've known him or he's known me, I should say, because I was a kid when he was
around. But in 52 years, we go back and he was a great friend of my father. So we have a lot of
memories together. But yeah, without my dad, I wouldn't be where I am today. Fundamentally,
would not have been able to do it. So you know, I owe him a huge amount. But yeah,
was the is it in the blood? Is in the family? Was he I mean, clearly he built a life through
buying and selling cars? Was he a real car guy himself? Is that where it came from?
Well, he was a very entrepreneurial guy. So he built his foundation of his business with
buying and selling cars. And actually then he saw opportunities to go into other areas. So
he went into the furniture business. He bought out the business called Libus, which was a
three piece sweet furniture manufacturer. So I can remember as a kid, he bought 16 containers
full of sofas. Do you want to somewhere to sit? No, I mean, it's weird and wonderful. Like,
because that's the kind of thing that he did. He saw an opportunity and he took it. I remember
we had a he had a showroom one day full of catalog, great universal or something. Yeah,
I mean, it had all of their old stock. And it was like bizarre, you know, it opened on a Sunday and
it was just like, literally like a bizarre stuff being sold out of his car showroom. It was like
bright green denim jeans or something like that. That was him. You know, he was he was a remarkable
man. And some of the things that he did over his career, just, I don't know if anyone's around,
anyone Huntington Alkenbury, anyone around that area? So you ever remember a spaceship restaurant
that was on the side of the road? That was my dad. So yeah, yeah. So he built that. And actually he
had on screen ordering for a hamburger way before McDonald's. I'm talking a very long time ago.
And the essence of that as well, he had actually it was a downfall of him, I'm being honest, because
he was at the point when the recession came in and it leveraged him so high at that point that
the banks went after him and we he lost everything. But he had LED advertising that he was selling off
to a cigarette company at the time. And that would have saved it a bit of got it. It just didn't
get it over the line in quick enough. But yeah. So where did the whole motocross
thing come from? Did they did they support you? Were your parents very keen for you to do that?
And did did dad just wheel a motocross bike into the house one day or did that come from you?
No, no, it came from me because actually I lived in a rural area and it was one of those things
where guys were on bikes and they'd all go and run around on these motocross bikes at a weekend.
And there was a buddy of mine at the time and he started a racing. So and I was not a guy,
you know, I sat, I didn't sit one exam, I came out of school with zero. And not that I'm proud of
that. I'm not proud of it. But in fact, is I never never did anything and I hated school. I was
quite rebellious. I didn't like to be told what to do, which probably shows now. But so the only
thing I really liked was like stuff that I would could be hands on. So they used to do like
this technical class with motorcycles, take them apart, put them back together.
So when the motocross thing came in is like, I went to my dad and said, like,
do you think we could do something, dad? You know, and actually, it was a little bit maybe of me
actually calling for him. And so how old would you have been at the time? I was 14. 14. So I was
like, can I get something that I can get my dad to spend more time with him? And that was the essence
of it. And we did really well. I was a top 36 ACU schoolboy rider and had opportunity to sort of
term semi professional and motocross. But then at this stage, four wheels kind of like looked a
little bit safer and a bit cleaner. Did you hurt yourself on the motor? Frequently. But actually,
for me, motocross was one of those sports that gave me a little bit of the tenacity motor racer
when I first started because you would line up with, you know, 30 odd guys, and you'd go into
this little narrow funnel first corner. And yeah, and chances are you might fall off and then 29
of them ride over the top of you. But you know, your elbows out, you've got a little bit physical.
And that's the kind of mentality that I went into Formula 4 1600 with. So yeah, so I mean,
your route was about as different to the route that most of your contemporaries to who kind of
like racing carts when they're eight years old and just going up through. I never did carting.
So a long way behind on that side of it, maybe a bit similar to Damon with road racing because he
came off two wheels. And there's been others that have done two wheels to four. So so I'm always
one of those guys where if you haven't done carting for me, it doesn't really make any odds.
Because I believe if you can drive a car, you can drive a car. So yeah, don't need to go and do
But is there stuff you can learn from two wheels, particularly kind of like balance and feel,
which is probably every bit as good as a carting education?
100%. 100%. And I think you just nailed it on the head balance is a is a big thing.
People look and say like balance inside a car actually is fundamental. So
it sounds kind of crazy when you see single-seater drivers, you know, F1 and others and you see
going to a corner and the head goes in with a corner and that's all balance is all
proportional sort of what you need inside the car. And it's also feeling confident at that
point as well. Even, you know, you might go home today and if you put the seat all the way up to
the steering wheel and you're driving like this, your confidence will dilute because you just don't
have, you know, fundamentally the right ergonomics to drive the car comfortably and confidently.
So so balance is a key thing. Learn it on a bike and scrapping, you know, close proximity.
You also get to understand that and that's going into car racing is actually for me was a plus.
And so let's talk about that. That's the transition into car racing. I think you're 17
years old into a Formula Ford. Can you remember your first experience?
Yeah, I went to actually I started at Caval Park with a driving school called Team Turarco
and we'd gone up there and gone around and done a few laps and the instructor guy there
owned the school said like, I think you might have something. So I suggest you try and see
you can go racing and that's fundamentally what we did. But at this stage, you've been driving
road cars a bit. Road cars illegally. Yeah, because I used to pinch the keys off the back of the
board and the garage and go off at night, which my dad never knew about until I told him in his
latter years. And he really never knew. He didn't come clean then. No, didn't have a Scooby-Doo.
You must have done something right because you clearly always brought them back.
Yeah, in one piece, which was lucky for me and lucky for a lot of other people because I wouldn't
advocate to do that, of course, but times were different back then. You know, you could turn
the lights out and the police can see where you were. That's also true. But anyway.
And so, now listen, racing then it started in the Formula 4 1600 and I have to say, you know,
some of the best years of my life was spent in those early days of racing.
And did you go into it just because it was safer or by that stage, were you actually thinking,
well, maybe there's a career in this and maybe I can spend the rest of my life?
No, I went into it because actually the motor cross side had sort of developed to a certain
point where I was actually reasonably good at it. And because of my dad's sort of car trading days,
a good friend of him said to like, said, look, can I take Mark to a motor race?
Because my dad wasn't in a motor racing. I had like no connection with it whatsoever.
So his friend took me to a race at Snatterton, like a club event. And I came back from that day
and I'm like, I just kept nagging my dad like, dad, I want to do this. I want to do this.
How do we do it? And he's like, get it out of your head, you know, like you're stupid,
like it's not going to happen. And eventually kept plaguing him. And actually what happened is
he had this really good deal that he couldn't turn down to sell a garage. And he basically
made me a deal on the day. He said, like, I will give you a little bit of support.
And then you can have that support for 12 months. At the end of it, you'll get it out of your system
and you need to get a real job. And that's the words that he basically put in place.
What was the real job I looked like? Did you have an idea of what a real job should be?
A real job for him was doing exactly what he was doing or doing something physically or,
you know, labor intensive. And actually at that point, in about six months in,
it all went a bit pear shaped because me and my dad had a huge argument because we were very alike.
And it actually took on a whole different dynamic as well. So the one big thing out of that is
after that, we'll put back together again, I never had a crossword with my father until the day he
passed away. And that for me meant a huge amount. So I think it was a little bit like the boy
turning into a man and the man recognizing that I was no longer a boy. I'm fascinated by those
first few experiences in a racing car. When did it become apparent to you that you could do it?
When was it obvious that there was real talent there?
Well, I don't know about talent, but I knew that I could drive a car quite quickly,
because I fundamentally could understand that those lap times were in reference to other people,
quite competitive. So that gave me a bit of confidence. And for me, that was the platform
builder in terms of confidence as well, because obviously I'd done nothing at school. I wasn't
really a guy that had embedded myself in education. And I'd found this channel that I could actually
show that there was someone there that could do something at a reasonable level. So that's
kind of how the whole thing sort of blossomed. But I think I started in 1984. And by 1989,
I was testing a Williams Formula One car. So back then, a very quick transition.
Was it kind of like in your genes, when you were a kid growing up? Were you sort of looking at
Ronnie Peterson and Jackie Stewart and all that lot? No. Only when I started racing did I then
start to get an understanding of all these greats that were out there and understand what Formula
One was. I didn't really have any understanding of F1 whatsoever. So it wasn't like... It wasn't
on the radar. It's not. It wasn't on the radar at all, because there was no connectivity. There was
nothing there other than cars on a garage forecourt. That was the only link. There was no motorsport
sort of link whatsoever. So you just raced to race and come where you come and hope just to be able
to do the next season, I guess? Yeah. I mean, probably where we were slightly different is that
we went to a Formula Ford race and could never really work out why everybody wasn't doing four
races in a day. Because back then, there was a lot of Formula Ford racers. You'd have champion of
Brands Hatch. You'd have autosports star tomorrow. You'd have ESO. And our way of looking at things
was like, right, all you need is maybe one more set of tires, a few more gallons of fuel,
and an entry fee. Like, our costs were already here because we've arrived. Okay, maybe the downside
is we need some spares, because now and again, you have an off. But if we're going to maximize
experience and gain it quick, then we've got to use what was available to us. And we started to do
like three or four races in a day. And then the whole thing shifted that everybody else was doing
three or four races in a day. And you've got that cluster of drivers, which to this day, I still
think is the biggest group of drivers of all kinds. You've got some superstars in there. Yeah. So
Damon, Johnny Herbert, Eddie Irvine, Julian Bailey, Martin Donnelly, loads of Bertram Gaschow,
loads of guys who made it to F1. Yeah. Well, just they're doing Formula Ford in the mid 80s.
In the best. And you won some championships. Yeah. Yeah. No, did some championships,
won a lot of races, did well in Europe. So as I say, Formula Ford for me was some of the best
racing ever. And I think if you talk to any of the F1 guys of my era, they're all telling you the
same thing. And the motivation, was it enough just to love the racing or were you kind of like
Bernie to actually win? Was the winning more important than the racing? Winning was important
because, again, like I say, going back for me, it was like trying to understand if I was good at
something. Yeah. And because I'd been trapped at school, I had no sort of recognition of trying
to understand what was out in the real world. And this thing called motor racing was actually
giving me something where I could measure my ability and measure whether I was being successful
or something. So that fundamentally for me was the foundation of like having a bit of inside
development. What is it about Formula Ford cars specifically that guys like you love?
They're the purest, rawest single-seater motorsport that I think you could have done at the time.
Because, you know, they gave you an insight into what was the next step. But in terms of view racing
with 120 horsepower and small inputs and good outputs in terms of what you did inside the cockpit
of the car and learning how to slipstream and actually going side by side with another driver
into turn one and looking across and seeing the whites of their eyes, you know, you actually
you got a huge amount of experience in 10 laps. And as I said, I think that group of drivers then
was an incredible group. How level of playing field was it then? Because the cars are presumably
all quite similar, but I'm sure someone more equal than others. Yeah, motor racing is what it is and
there's always going to be some advantage. And even at that level, there was always a little bit
of a difference that could be made. And of course, as you got better and you got more renowned to be
a top guy and top driver in that level, you would get offers or maybe, you know, I think minister
engines came and gave me a son of patch. Yeah, so there used to be this legendary engine called
patch. And it was called patch because it threw a rod out the side of the block, and they patched it,
and it was still a great engine. And then they got son of patch. Yeah, so I had son of patch. So
and I had it for the Formula Ford festival. And I did a, you know, we had a great Formula
Ford festival didn't didn't go according to plan to win it. But we're actually was laughing about
this adamant couple of weeks back at an event. Because in the Formula Ford festival, I had my car
at the nose cone reinforced with some like scaffold. And no one ever knew at the time. But
he was laughing as well, because I managed to come behind him and lifted him up at a gearbox and
was spinning his rear wheels and dropped him back down. He said he actually did him a favor
because he spun off and like, you know, he had good traction off he went. But yeah, that was
those times you could do that stuff, you wouldn't get away with it now. It's a shame really.
So I'm staggered that you went from never having raced a car before to
to testing a Formula One car within a couple of years. Did that F1 car when you first stepped
in it? Did it seem to want to rip your head off? You know what the first experience of a Formula
One car for me was a place not that far from here, I don't think, Abingdon airfield. And it was
for Williams and it was to do straight line testing. So then you've done some you've done
a 3000 by this. Yeah, I've done a 3000. 3000 and I've done a little bit of F3.
And the reason why I did F3 is because I had a contract with Tom's Toyota and fundamentally
there is the budget that was put into the F3 gave me money to go to a 3000 and I used it for that.
And even doing a 3000 I first started I was in a year old car with mechanical injection and we
didn't quite have the budget and the kit that everybody else did. So yeah, never been at the
heady heights and always sort of like fought for what we got but managed to do it. But it sounds
like you grew pretty comfortable with F1 machinery performance quite fast. Yeah, I had a great
starting point with Williams and was probably then the first generation of test and reserve driver
we kind of set the trend. Can you just tell us how that drive came about? That drive came about
from a guy that just passed away very recently a gentleman called John McDonald who used to own
the RAM Formula 1 team if anyone remembers that team back then and John was a massive supporter
of mine and I'd actually race for him in Middlebridge F3000 team and he was the main sort of
the main guy for me to actually go and knock the door down at Frank Williams' place and he
rung me up one day said right get yourself ready meet me at Didcot at the factory we're going to
Frank and I'm like what we going there for is like just get yourself ready and you know arrived
and went into Frank's office and and John basically sold Frank like you need this kid you need him
to start doing your test and reserve driver role. He's got the ability to deliver back to Patrick
Head at the time and all the guys that we knew in the technical side and he's going to be a great
asset and I remember I cut the deal on the day I got paid £10,000 that was my fee for the season
yeah and that was what 1990 no 1989 and that was the first year of the deal and they signed me on
a multi-year contract I had a three-year contract at the time which I should have stayed in my
multi-year contract because when I elected to go to Brabham off the back of my testing work
yeah it wasn't the greatest time to be on that team well you learn these things you know
and actually I should have had somebody around me to tell me not to do the move but at that point
I'd done a good job for Williams and I had some great testing time so were you essentially managing
yourself yeah yeah at that point because because we had no motor racing sort of experience around
as a family so no one was there to give us any sort of guidance but Brabham approached me and he
said like we've got this this seat do you want to be a Grand Prix driver and I had to go to Frank
and Patrick and say you know would you let me go and they were like look you're making a bad move
and I'm like but I'm a young guy I'm getting a Formula One seat and the other big thing as well
which people sometimes don't equate to when you're sort of get to elite sport I was already a father
so I was already a father at 21 years old so my decision making process was also about you know I
need to make sure I'm delivering for my young son and my wife and you know there was this F1 drive
and a salary and like well this is it right I've made it all right we're off wrong decision
yeah well that didn't say during your time at Williams as the test and reserve driver who were
the race drivers then? Jerry Bootson and Ricardo Petrazi yeah okay and you could see from testing
times that you were competitive with them? I was quicker than them so that that was the the icing
on the cake so you know and actually my opportunity then also nearly came through Williams because I
then remember there's some talk of doing it an extra Grand Prix it's actually going to be a European
Grand Prix that we're going to hold at Donnington and the guys wanted to do a third entry for me
to run me in a fully active car so if I'd have had that opportunity probably would have been a great
place to sort of start my F1 career with Williams but it got pulled at the last moment and we never
did you ever drive that active car in testing? I did all the active work did you? yeah so I've probably
done those cars as bonkers as they sounded oh yeah I've done more active work probably than any
Grand Prix driver because I did a huge amount at Williams and I also did a lot in McLaren in 92
and I did a load of the semi-automatic gearbox work yeah they were crazy times I mean when you
go into a corner and basically you couldn't hold the throttle down because you know the the car
just didn't roll it was a steady state in pitch and the aerodynamics were uber efficient and your
head was being pulled out and your right foot couldn't stretch any further and you'd swear you'd
come in and go like I was flat through there and they'd look at their data go no you wasn't flat
I said well it was bloody quick said yeah it was quick but you weren't flat. Were the cars actually
fun to drive or was it just an all deal? No no they were super fun to drive because they were so
efficient but they were actually getting beyond human input like it was kind of like okay well I
can't hold on anymore and I can't stretch my body to get the throttle down. Okay after that and then
you get into a brabham was that a shock in the opposite direction? Huge shock huge shock
shock in many ways that twice during the season I had to sit at their office
because they bounced my paycheck on me big shock wouldn't understand that in the formula one today
would you but that happened a big shock that Williams asked me to come back during the 1991
season again which would never happen today and asked me to test their FW14B so would not be heard
of a Grand Prix driver in another team going to another one of course I jumped at the chance and
Brabham were like yeah go do it because we're understand a bit more and then we ran around
Imola after the Grand Prix and did two days of testing and I went 2.2 seconds faster on
on race tyres than what I'd done in the Brabham on qualifying tyres so then the penny dropped
but of course you know it gave me great insight and that was when Damon was there as test and
reserve driver at Williams which to this day he still hasn't paid me a dime but he owes me that
because I rung him up because I said look I'm going to Brabham I've got a race seat get your
backside down to Frank there's a seat there for test and reserve role and that's how that happened
and which ends in 1986 well being world champion and me having the cramps so yeah
tell him if you're listening yeah paying you back one day so 63 Grand Prix entered between
91 and 95 how do you reflect on your F1 career now I know that almost half your races you're
tired from mostly because of reliability issues yeah listen I I sit here today I'm
immensely proud that I got there a merit and I'm very happy being a Formula One driver
I sit here today also reflecting on knowing that what I'd done in like an FW 14 or in
McLaren when I was test and reserve there knowing that the speed was always there I never quite got
the opportunity at the right time right place to go and fulfill that and also through politics and
you know sometimes I said I really wish I'd have been called Blondelli or Blondello you know
just because if I'd have been a foreigner I probably would have had a half a chance of staying
in but you know being a Brit inside a British team sometimes wasn't always the best thing to be but
I do feel that sometimes I just quite hadn't been able to show my full potential because I'd
I never got the opportunity to stay in one place for a second season I was always like grabbing
an opportunity to go to next and again some of that is because I was a young dad and I had to try
and just get revenue through the door and sitting there Christmas and New Year with no contract
you know might sound glamorous looking at drivers and at these levels but especially back then
there's a lot of us who sat there with no income coming through for three or four months and like
okay maybe this is it we're I'll go get that real job like my dad said you I guess you weren't as
aware of it at the time as we are now but you're also racing in an era of the most extraordinary
drivers if you think of the guys that you're up against you know Prost and Senna Mansell and
VK and can you just give us a few moments of your reflections on those sort of people who were the
good guys what did you make of them at the time um where you just kind of like sort of head down
in the zone and they were kind of somewhere else or where did you revere there were how
how do you sort of approach your relations with these guys I had three podiums in my career and
every every one of those podiums was with world champions or future world champions so I stood
up there with Senna's and Prost and Schumacher's and Hill's and that for me is is nice but I always
treat them the same as anybody else they were all racers and respected them and I think because
I'd been in the environment of being in a top team with a top car Williams and McLaren in my
testing days I knew that the pace was there I knew I could get it done I just didn't really
have the equipment at the right time so I never felt that there was anyone out there who was like
head and shoulders um I never felt that there was anyone out there that was like beyond my
capabilities the only thing I would say is where I learned a huge amount in a season of 92 when I
was test and reserve for Senna and Burger at McLaren I took a huge amount of understanding what you
need to do outside of a car in Formula 1 from Senna for instance because the guy was the epitome
of like you know a marketeer a politician the motivator the engineer he had everything going
on outside of a car as much as what you did inside the cockpit of a racing car and it was
really interesting to see like you know he knew when to pull every single tool drawer out and take
the right tool out the right time and he knew when to apply the pressures when he needed it whether
it was publicly or behind the scenes and he made sure that everybody was motivated and and targeted
on getting success and incredibly selfish and driven guy but for me like a genius behind the
wheel but fundamentally behind the wheel top of his game but outside of that top of his game I mean
as his own CEO he was like right up there with the best and you in 95 at McLaren you were Mika
Hackenon's teammate yeah so I assume you got to know him very well and understood how he operated
and his driving ability I mean he later became a two-time world champion did you identify a
difference between the two of you or actually could you stand shoulder to shoulder with him
um so it doesn't matter now but I mean like or it probably does I don't know maybe they come
at me with some legal but you know back then you would sign a contract and it was quite clear in
your contract that you would only be able to talk about certain things and a lot of stuff would have
to stay behind closed doors so in my day with Mika when I was at McLaren I was always on an engine
spec less than Mika so no matter what I did and you can't talk about it well I couldn't back then
maybe that's the loyal but you know I can now because it doesn't really matter but what I'm
saying is at that point you you understood when you rolled down pit lane that you were an engine
spec below you know and that engine spec may be anything between 15-25 horsepower so there's no
substitute for horsepower you know you can't drive around that um so for example when I out
qualified Mika at Estoril which is where Mika out qualified Senna yeah I did it on an engine that was
less yeah and actually over the course of that that that weekend from Saturday to Sunday that a lot
of people didn't know is like Mika actually had his pedals swapped back around because Mika was a
left foot breaker I was a right foot breaker so I'm the old school generation of
right foot braking and Mika actually had his pedal his footbox put back around because he was
convinced that the way that I was driving with right foot braking was quicker than what he was
doing with left foot braking so psychologically I got in his head um that race I also got a call
on the radio from a certain Mr Dennis to tell me to move over and let Mika go by of which I did
right in front of the pit lane in front of everybody yeah that's the way to do it absolutely
so never a level playing field I honestly I don't think in most sport there is always a level
player field you know at any level I think from the your start your career to the end of it because
that's all all it's all about you try to find that unfair advantage and and whether that's a team
or whether that's a driver or whether that's an engineer or a mechanic everyone's trying to find
the little marginal gain I think people will be maybe a bit surprised to learn that you actually
did more indie car races than the Formula 1 car races you spent more time um and were even more
successful over that what made you make the switch um I became disinheartened with F1
because I got to the end of 95 and um I'd actually done a good solid job at McLaren you know
we had a lot of engine failures but actually result-wise and performance was there
and at the end of the season I'd signed a heads of agreement with Salva so I thought my career was
then going to go on to Salva and in this interim period there was a gentleman turned up called
Dieter Matyshev so Dieter Matyshev was Mr Red Bull he'd invested in Salva and part of the process
of him doing his investment was that he wanted to choose the other driver seat that was open then
and in the conditions where he wanted a driver who had won a Grand Prix to be in the seat and the
only guy that was around who'd won a Grand Prix that didn't have a job then was Johnny so Johnny
Herbert had won the Grand Prix I think 95 or something Silverstone and um I got pushed out
and Johnny went in and at this point I'm like you know what I've kind of had it with F1 but what
happened is Mercedes Benz who'd done the first year back in F1 in 95 um came to me and said look
you know what if you decide you want to do something different we want to support you
and we're going to give you an engine lease deal from Mercedes Benz to take to America if you want
to go and do Indycar and that's really what came together from that point so I had this engine deal
on my back which was their thank you for sort of doing the 95 season with them and another gentleman
I think might even be here today called Adrian Reynard was a big supporter and we got this deal
conjured together where I went to the States and did a deal with Bruce McCorough at PacWest Racing
and that was the beginning of my of my Indycar career and we couldn't use
Merck engines until the season after because they were contractually bound with Kozloff
but as soon as that contract was finished and Merck came in stepped up and were true to the word
and we went to Mercedes Benz power I mean you were clearly very successful but when you first
got there I mean how did you find turning left at 200 miles an hour? Scary and also
very early on in my career I had a fundamental problem because I didn't turn left I went straight
on and hit a corner. Oh we're going to get to that. So I think when drivers look at you know
drivers I know at very high levels and they look at Indycar racing and they go oh that
on the novel it's easy I can tell you now it's not easy it's far from easy any driver that drives
a novel and is competitive on it I have the utmost respect for because the nuances and the differences
are so minute and when you're starting to travel around it I think 253 miles an hour is the quickest
I ever did 253 in 229 in a corner so we were doing two miles in 29.9 seconds you know that's
that's quick. So I worked out that the Fontana in 1997 you did 500 miles at an average speed of
166 miles an hour inclusive of all stops which is the same as driving from Calais to Geneva
stopping five times in 3 hours and 20 minutes. Yeah you couldn't do that in an EV could you?
Did it ever when you do when you're doing 500 miles and your average lap speed we're doing
well over 200 miles an hour does it ever become normal is it ever less than utterly terrifying?
No it doesn't become normal and you know the thing about that race Andrew is that was in 110 degree
heat in California and I finished that race more luck than judgment if I'm being really honest
because I took I took a decision we had a yellow and actually with Greg more right we had a yellow
and I had already radioed into the team said guys like my my right rear tires blistering
and I can feel the vibration when you're at those speeds vibration is like really easy to pick up
right so I'm like and then like we're gonna have to pit I said no we're we're we're gonna go yeah
and at the back on the light no no you need to pit it's dangerous I said no no we're gonna carry it
and I think I did the last 15 laps with these blisters and and it could have been
really a bad deal for us but we did it and we won but I remember when we finished the blisters
were like 50 pence pieces in size and even the the tire guys came down and and as much as they
were happy they were actually peed off because it could have been a really bad incident but
that's the part and parcel for me is what drivers are all about you know when racing drivers get a
be in a bonnet rightly or wrongly you know and when it goes the right way happy days when it goes
wrong ways yeah can we do Rio and just where you didn't turn left instead you went into a wall at
198 miles an hour yes so Rio was one of those situations where you know as a racing driver you
sign your life away at the beginning of the season you sign so many waivers whether that's for tires
whether it's for the team whether it's for car parts third party suppliers and really what happened
then is that unfortunately a third party supplier had manufactured some parts and they managed to get
onto the onto our car and it had to be been on the car um it should have been on the car in in
some respects but it should not have been on the car at that time because none of the parts have
been crack tested stress stress tested tested properly whether machine or on track testing
and they found their way onto the car and this part was a dispel it was like the the brake
the hub that you see what clamps up the disc and the the wheel to it and everything else so
um we're in the race uh i think we're laying like p10 or something and i came towards the last
corner and i put my foot on the brake pedal to slow down and the pedal went to the bulkhead
and at this stage i was actually doing over 200 and i think 12 miles an hour and with the impact
on the pedal it took a little bit of speed off um i at this stage also computed i thought you know
what this is my number's up i'm done i took the car down to the apron across the corner because
i tried to hit my teammate marit segujima slow you down yeah because i knew that if i and there
was no tires there was no like safety barrier this was concrete walls this is in Rio de Janeiro
brazil should never have been happening this race because they should not just had concrete
um and i tried to hit marit segujima luckily for him i missed him um i went about you know an
inch behind his rear wing and coasted by but i struck the wall and i struck the wall 198 and
it was 122 g impact so if anyone remembers like grojans crash yeah i mean 68g yeah can i just read
this this summary of the the incident that i i read the other day blundell crashed head on into
a concrete wall in rio at an estimated 122 gs resulting in a fractured foot and ankle brain
hematoma and various injuries to internal organs forcing him to miss three races that's all i thought
was going to be three seasons yeah so um so my lungs and ribs collided and stripped all the cartilage
off the sternum through the through the force because the first impact was 122 and then the
secondary impact which was uh when it slapped the wall um and i've actually got the monocoque i've
still got it the team sent it to me for some bizarre reason all right i never really worked out why
it is sent me it but um and actually we've just dragged it out and i'm putting it in a display
box to uh to do a little bit of a chat around it just for old times sake but it's an inch and a
half narrower than what it was manufactured and it's uh the seat belts are five inches longer than
what they were manufactured so that gives you an idea of did you know you smacked your head on the
wheel as well didn't you i smacked my head on the wheel and actually i bent the wheel in half have
you got the wheel too i've got the wheel too but you know um you know when you read these stories
about kids that lift up cars because their mum and dad stuck under there yeah so i think i went
through one of those moments because i'd even got to the before i got to the the wall i'd actually
bent the wheel in half when i was putting the thing down to the apron but i i hit my head on
the wall as well you know it was the other thing and we still got the helmet well i still got the
helmet um but the uh yeah the injuries were uh quite significant but and i didn't know about
the hematoma the brain clot until i flew back from brazil because i checked myself at the hospital
because there was no medical support and i only found out about that actually when my dad picked
me up from the airport and we were driving home and i told him i said like i've got the worst headache
in my life dad and he took me straight to adam brooks in cambridge and we went to uh er and i did
this MRI and the CAT scan everything and the neurosurgeon comes out he said we would you like
to explain the car accident you've had and i'm like it's not your typical road traffic accident
yeah um so that's when we discovered out a clock and he said like you're a lucky man because you
know the clock could have burst on the plane at altitude pressure um but to answer your question
the reason why i got back in seven weeks was when i got back was because i had to because uh somebody
else was racing my car and i needed to get back because back then it still it wasn't quite like
it is today and um you know don't get me wrong i was on a very good salary and uh i needed to
move that person out that was my job and you're clearly one of these strange people who can have
an event like that get back into essentially the same car head out into a similar circuit and be
completely fine with it i'm okay now um do you know what the funny thing is about that is
i got back in and the very first time that i went back in a car after rio was at a place called
michigan speedway which was the very first time i'd ever been on a super speedway a two mile oval
like you were saying fontana so a bit of a baptism of fire um let alone you know doing a short over
but getting on one of these big super speedways and i remember going on to the circuit and um
we had this uh this fabulous team manager it was australian um it all used to the only word he ever
said was shag i don't know why it was in Aussie terms and not shag isn't shag what i think it means
here but it's a different terminology and all he'd say on the radio he's like all right shag how's
it going shag i'm like my name's mark so i get up to speed which i think i'm up to speed 10 12 laps
feeling my way and uh he comes on the radio and he's like shag what's going on i'm like
oh you know like radio calm down like all good all good he didn't say nothing else i came in pitted
and he came over he didn't go on the radio he put his head in the cockpit and he's like how are you
i said well car feels really bad and he's like shag you need to speed up he said you're only
lapping at 200 miles an hour and i'm like jesus christ like you know he said like it's not going to
feel good at that speed you need to be up at like 220 225 then the car gets in the window yeah but
having never been on one of these super speedways i never knew and at that point i actually got out
the car went to the rental car and i told all the guys the guys give me a couple of hours if i
don't come back i'm done and i drove off didn't know where i was going just drove off i just needed
some headspace to understand whether it was a real thing for me anymore because no one was hit me on
the head to say you must go motor racing it was a case of me thinking you know if i'm going to do
this i need to do it committed and i need to do it properly so i needed to get some headspace and
that's what i did and after that moment what was the best the best performance um we went on to win
we went on to win three races i won a a street course in toronto flag to flag i won a
portland by 0.227 thousandth of a second closest finish in history in kart racing back then
wet and dry race and i won fontana 500 um where i'm really upset now because that circuit has
just been actually uh ball dosed um and they had these like a brass plaque with my hand prints in
this brass plaque in the in the paddock with me and jeff gordon who was the nazcar superhero back
then um and i tried to call the circuit and said is there any chance i could get the plaque
but it was too late i think it would have been melted down but it was like it was quicker than
india wasn't it yeah much quicker much quicker than india yeah i'd say like 253 miles an hour on
the straight was um significant you know we had 900 horsepower back then it was big but ultimately
the there were no lasting effects on that accident it didn't slow you down no because i think as a
driver you have to make a decision you have to come up with an understanding it's like you know
if you want to do this you've got to do it properly and you have to also realize if you're
going to do it do it in a way where you're in control not just for yourself but actually
for all of the other drivers around you yeah i mean that's something that sometimes people
don't quite get to understand like you know you need to make sure that you're in control
for their sake as much as anything else yeah they're all out there with the same level of
risk as you um i just looked at my watch we're already 50 minutes into this we have to do a
bit of them all more than anything else you have to tell me about a certain lap because i've read
so much about that lap many people in the trouble know the lap i'm talking about which
was your qualifying lap in 1990 yes in the nissan where you qualified i did look this up
six seconds a lap quicker than anybody else and there are all sorts of stories about the state
of the car at the time the state of your mind at the time can you just talk us through what was
actually going on um so first and foremost i'd say that probably for me that was the best
the best lap i'd ever driven in a race car and for everybody it's all on youtube you haven't seen
it go and take a look um and i say that with the utmost respect because the reason behind it is
i had no reference for what the car was capable of and the reason for that is the beginning of this
lomon program the japanese had turned up with this qualifying car so you can imagine with
the squad of drivers everyone's vying for position of like who's going to drive the qualifying car
the qualifying car was done on the flip of a coin between actually myself and julian so just
to be clear this was a qualifying car wasn't a qualifying engine in a car now is it i mean
the bones of it were an engine but the car had a few refinements in it as well yeah um
and at this stage as well you can imagine like me and julian bailey were the uh the
drivers who were the main guys and it got it got centered around the flip of a coin
i won the toss of the coin i opted for the qualifying car because in my mind i'm like
yeah this this is it like if we've got the 1100 horsepower i mean who can beat you
you know but of course i didn't really understand that it had done no running no testing no work
had been done other than dyno on a bench um so we knew the power was there but had never
been installed in a car so every time we'd run out in this car uh basically you'd get the call
over radio on the out lap like pit the car over boosting can't run and there was a lot of focus
on the car because it was a japanese manufacturer that they no way wanted to have any reliability
issues that would stand out because they didn't want to lose lose face so we'd go all through this week
literally out back in until we get to the last qualifying zone when
is for us it's called like the twilight zone if anyone's ever been to limon or you guys have been
but um when you get the circuit it's had the sun on it and you've got a little bit of track
temperature and then actually the evening's drawing in and you get a bit of moisture in the air
so the engine's gonna sing track's still got the grip it's like it's the twilight zone it's just when
we can get everything put together so they send me out and i go back out and i get halfway around
the lap again and at this stage we'd have to make a decision on tires so the car had the hardest
tire we had available and the reason behind that is because we'd not done a lap to understand
whether a soft tire would last a lap yeah we had no reference zero so halfway around and i'm like
up and down on the throttle like yeah okay this feels good yeah like this has got some juice and
i get the call abort the lap bring it in like we'd been there all week i mean it's a long time
yeah so i'm like you know i screwed this so i took my decision again unplugged the radio
i'm like yeah i'm going for it get around come on to the main straight to start the lap
i don't know i spin this thing up and i'm still spinning it fires me gearbox
i'm still spinning the wheels in fourth gear this thing has just got so much power it can't cope
yes i'm like oh my god yeah the whole of the lap then is done with no reference because i've got no
understanding when to apply the throttle i've got no understanding when to brake i don't know when to
turn in because the car had never been driven the car had never been driven like i've never done a
lap never done a lap you can look at the lap charts it just there's nothing there of any
lap in anger whatsoever so i don't know what grip level i've got so for me that is the best lap
i'd ever done because it was pure seat of the pants gut stuff and we managed still 238 miles an hour
with the chicanes on the mulsanne with yeah with the chicanes and to this day i had one little
bit of traffic in the Porsche curves which really pissed me off yeah because i think i could have
been quicker but i also say to this day if i'd have had some reference laps and i'd have had
a softer tyre i reckon it was another four seconds at i really do um it was
mighty but it must still be the greatest qualifying margin of pole relative to anybody else in the
history of the race i think it's still up there is the biggest margin ever i don't think it's been
beaten yet um this and for me it's like one of those stories i can sit my grandkids on my knee and
like show them an old video in black and white and go like there you go today i'll
confer the engine on it at the end of that um i've got one of the pistons out of the engine
actually they mounted it on a nice plaque i didn't get any bonus that really peed me as well um you
know the thing is it was it was really quite weird when i got back to the pit i had no radio and i
couldn't find a lead to plug it back in and and i wasn't going to do that anyway so when i got back
i could see there was like a lot of emotion but i had like a lot of japanese guys technicians looking
at me like laser focused not happy and then all the brits like
so it was a little bit of a like hmm okay something's good something's bad um
of course the japanese came around after an hour or so and like eventually we had a nice sit down
and it was the first time a japanese manufacturer had ever been on pole position at lamon
yeah so nissan had like got this this a little bit of credibility from that as well but um yeah
great lap still a good memory um could i do it today no would i've ever done it again probably
not probably it was a one-off yeah and is that a a fond of memory than winning lamon in 92 with
posion no it's a memory that is right up there with them for all these different reasons but
winning lamon also is a memory that will always stay with me um the camaraderie of being with
a derrick warwick i have the utmost respect for i knew derrick's brother paul well and all of the
backstory with that um to get drafted in in the 92 season because it's actually the only
race that i did in 92 i was at mclaren um that deal came about that doing my work for a mclaren
center and burger if you remember mclaren two seasons later ended up with pergio engines
and that was already in the pipeline for getting pergio engines back in 92 so
john todd at the time was the boss at pergio and approached me and said look we need an extra driver
you've done group seed on sports car where you draft in and by the way derrick's given you a
thumbs up so would you come and be uh in the squad so yeah i had a hundred percent winning record
i only did one race and i won it so it's nice well i won it with the other two and 11 years later
in a Bentley you nearly won it again do you feel robbed i i feel a little bit
aggrieved because there was two technical failures so two literally two terminals on two batteries
independently um found in us during the 24 hours of lamon that year and um they took away the the
possibility of winning now we finished second but actually you know we were the quickest car on
track for most of the time when we were running so i do feel a little bit aggrieved and i feel a
bit aggrieved because it was british racing green and it was a bentley and a bentley boy and like you
know it meant so much but um and it was you and johnny and brabs in the car yes yeah yeah great
squad of drivers um fantastic guys and again for uh for me and johnny had known each other from like
we were kids teenagers and brabs as well wasn't far behind in that mix um as i say camaraderie
you know and that's all important thing a lot of the drivers today sort of don't quite get
the you know endurance racing is all about giving the car back in one piece and making sure there's
got some some gearbox left in it and some brakes left and you know that's that's the art of it
um we we need to sort of spool on a bit um well i think we're in 2019 now
and perhaps not quite the first flush of youth anymore we can scoot on really quickly
but briefly what made you do it go back to the go go go touring car racing um commerciality
yeah uh the i got approached through a relationship with uh hp and uh hula packard
basically who said they would underwrite a season for me um and at this stage i'm like you know what
i have a lot of young drivers that i manage who are way better than me and can get the job done
but nope the deal was based on me coming out retirement to go and race again so what what
screwed me a little bit is that actually i had a deal to go and run with um subaru in a real
drive i'd have had half a chance excuse me but um the team went pear shaped during the winter
and the only team i could find with a car available was uh front-wheel drive outie
and as people will see from my results which is a worse season of motor racing my whole career
i could not drive front-wheel drive i couldn't get my head around it but andrew you've pointed
this out before mark not not alone in having a chastening time in a front-wheel drive outie in
the vtc zoo but no by no means no i mean sterling moss did front-wheel drive outie with a certain
young person you might know called martin brunbel um back in the richard loy days in an outie and the
only time he ever did well in that car was when it was chucking it down and they got the slicks
off it and you could slide the thing around and he suddenly understood how it was working so you're
a good company so that's interesting you just mentioned mossy because um dennis jenkinson very
well the dennis jenkinson was a very uh renowned motorsport journalist and uh big buddy of uh of
mosses so jenks came up to me one day when i was in f 3000 and i remember it it was in valolunga in
italy and uh he came came up and there's like a chance to me goes uh i've listened to you the way
that you drive okay he said um so you hit the throttle pedal three or four times in the corner
he said uh huh yeah and some of this comes from motocross and he said oh uh he said there's only
one other guy does that he said there's center okay yeah and that all came true when i went to test
for mclaren and then fundamentally you'd look at our traces on data and we we drove the same so i
would hit the throttle three or four times in the corner yeah because like we would steer the car from
the rear we've input a throttle and then at that point we'd balance the car out and then we'd come
off the corner just like blending understeer off the exit of a turn so when i set the car up i set
it up exactly like erdan did which all came true for him because he came to watch me testing a
silverstone in a very early stage of the season to give it like a green light and tilt with a cap
so yeah he's okay you can carry on um and uh and that's the reason why i couldn't drive a front
wheel drive car because as you can imagine front wheel drive car every time you hit the throttle
pedal you kind of go like six inches so you need to be like driving a v
where you come in on the gas step off it and tell yourself to keep off it and then go yeah and i
drive like an eu because i'm like brr brr brr and that's my excuse so we we spool forward to the present
day and you have a very successful business um man who drivers your own btcc team just tell
you ready a little bit about what like it looks like mark london these days um it's a real job
yeah yeah so um yeah my dad would be proud um we we have a small sports market and agency there's
ten of us um it's called mbp which is mark london partners but actually dm is for motorsport
the uh the b is for brand partners and the p is for partner program so yes we have motorsport we
have a british touring car team and we have eight drivers under management the likes of a
a mike conway is helmets here two time world champion lomon 24 hour winner tom bloomquist
guys are that caliber to youngsters and then we have a big corporate networking program we've
got 40 odd corporates i think five of them a billion dollar plus businesses that we do b2b work with
and then we do event management and um lots of other little things as well that keep us busy but
it's it's great i'm probably first one in the office and last one to leave because i've got that
kind of work ethic but um as we are growing um and i've also got a hard-nosed chairman do you
know pio pefitas dragons den so pio is my chairman he's a stakeholder in the business um is a great
friend but uh he is a tough cookie when it comes to business yeah which for me i love because like
we know where we stand and uh you know the business has grown and i think now we're 12 years in and
you know it's it's doing great things so we're never going to be big and uh you know the next
img or something like that will always be small but small is beautiful i think yeah oh i agree well
ladies and gentlemen mark thank you so much for your time thank you for coming to this to the
day to talk to everybody so mark thank you for coming telling us all your wonderful
stories um and yeah that's it from us for now but please put your hands together as a mark one day
About this episode
Mark Blundell traces his path from a caravan-first childhood and a bike-then-motocross upbringing into junior single-seaters, where balance, slipstreaming, and close racing shaped his feel. He details early F1 testing with Williams, the “patch” engine story, and how tyre and active-car work influenced his development. Switching to IndyCar via a Mercedes-Benz engine lease, he recounts oval-speed tire vibration and a terrifying brake failure. Later, Le Mans qualifying and endurance reliability, plus BTCC team/driver management, round out his racing-to-business arc.
Andrew Frankel and Dan Prosser interview Mark Blundell, live at the Bicester Scramble. They discuss his humble roots, his rise to F1, move to IndyCar, the Le Mans win in 1992 and his best qualifying lap ever. Not to forget the 198mph crash into the wall in Rio...
Use coupon code pod20 at checkout to get 20% off an annual subscription to The Intercooler's online car magazine for the first year! Listen to this podcast ad-free, and enjoy a subscriber-only midweek podcast too. With a 30-day free trial, you can try it risk-free – https://www.the-intercooler.com/subscribe/
