Martin Brundle swaps the grid walk for a GT40 at Spa Six Hours with son Alex
Martin Brundle is hanging up the Sky F1 mic for the weekend and pulling on the gloves again, teaming up with his son Alex and historic racing ace Gary Pearson for the Spa Six Hours in a Ford GT40.
The father-and-son duo will share driving duties in the famed pre-’65 classic endurance event at Spa-Francorchamps on September 26–27, threading a thunderous GT40 through Eau Rouge rather than dodging celebrities on a live grid walk.
“About time really…!” Alex announced on social media, confirming that his dad will join the GT40 entry for the six-hour contest. Martin reposted the news with the sort of grin you can hear through the screen: “Really looking forward to driving the beautiful GT40 with Gary and Al, at Spa of all places.”
For Brundle Sr., it’s a proper return to the thing he’s always done best. He hasn’t raced since the Goodwood Revival three years ago and says the motivation is simple. “I just fancied driving Alex’s GT40 with him,” he told Autosport, adding that even on Formula 1 weekends, their schedules rarely align. “It’s a rare opportunity for a father and son weekend. Me and Al did Le Mans together in 2012 and we’ve raced together in Jaguar E-types, so it’ll be fun.”
As for targets, there aren’t any. “No aspirations,” Martin admitted, which in Brundle-speak usually means he’ll keep it tidy, keep it quick, and keep it out of the gravel. The GT40 is a handful even on a calm day, and Spa is never that. Six hours around the Ardennes in a car that breathes through carburettors and bellows down the Kemmel Straight is more about rhythm, mechanical sympathy and a bit of old-school grit than outright aggression.
The Spa Six Hours remains one of historic racing’s great postcards: a deep grid of Touring and Grand Touring machinery built before 1965, a rolling clock, weather that tends to freelance, and the same fearsome ribbon of tarmac that still hosts the Belgian Grand Prix. It’s a proper endurance throwback, the kind of weekend where you can smell the fuel mix and feel the era in your bones.
Brundle’s day job hardly needs introduction. A nine-time F1 podium finisher turned broadcaster in 1997, he’s become the sport’s most trusted voice, dropping into the Sky F1 box as co-commentator and then out onto the grid with a live mic and zero script. The unscripted bit is the charm: one moment it’s a technical nugget, the next it’s a bemused celebrity under a barrage of polite persistence. It’s an art form at this point.
But the racer never really leaves a racer. Spa has that effect too. Even the seasoned ones feel a tick faster of pulse at the foot of Raidillon. If you’re trackside this weekend, don’t be surprised if you clock a familiar helmet easing an old warhorse over the kerbs at Les Combes, smooth hands doing what they’ve always done.
There’s a nice symmetry to it all. The Brundles have shared the big stuff before—Le Mans in 2012—plus a few E-type skirmishes. Now they’re back together in a GT40 at Spa, the sort of sentence that makes motorsport people nod and say, yes, that sounds right.
No big promises, no headline chase. Just a father and son, a classic car, and six hours at one of racing’s great cathedrals. Frankly, that’s enough.
