Martin Brundle wrapped up 2025 exactly as he’s lived most of it: a little bit flat-out, a little bit sideways, and always good telly.
Fresh from Sky F1 duty in Abu Dhabi, the grid-walk grandmaster picked his twin bookends of the season — a highlight that had him back behind the wheel, and a blooper that reminded everyone why live TV remains undefeated.
First, the blushes. Singapore. Flooded grid, star parade, the usual Brundle pinball between celebrities and frowning mechanics. He spots Lewis Capaldi, or so he thinks.
“Lewis, wonderful to see you,” Brundle beams.
Only it isn’t Lewis. It’s Aidan Capaldi, Lewis’s brother, who gently sets him straight. A beat later, the actual Lewis sweeps in, Brundle lets out that unmistakable laugh, and we’re off to the races. The three share a warm exchange, Brundle turns to the camera to wrap before the anthem, and misses Capaldi’s hand waiting in mid-air. Capaldi, with comic timing to match his vocals, shakes his own hand to camera and breaks down laughing.
Later, Capaldi posted the clip with the caption “bitched by Brundle,” which is both devastating and fair. Brundle, to his credit, held his hands up: “Sincere apologies, Lewis,” he wrote back. “I turned around to the camera with an urgent 3-second count in my ears to wind up for the national anthem. Had no idea you were trying to shake my hand. A cardinal sin on my part which I hope to put right one day. Hope you enjoyed F1.”
Reflecting on the moment after the season finale, Brundle said, “Getting Lewis Capaldi’s brother instead of Lewis Capaldi… especially when two seconds later, some bloke walks in, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, that’s Lewis Capaldi, isn’t it?’ Yeah, endless things like that.”
It’s classic Brundle. The charm of his grid walk has always been that it might all go gloriously wrong at any moment — and when it does, he somehow turns it into a crowd-pleaser. Singapore was exactly that: a blooper that became a wholesome bit of live TV.
As for the high point, it wasn’t a celebrity or a headline interview. It was a steering wheel.
Brundle climbed into McLaren’s 2023 MCL60 at the Circuit of The Americas, the very car Lando Norris raced that season, and put in a few laps on a hot Texas afternoon. The cameo doubled as a bit of Hollywood crossover, with “F1: The Movie” star Brad Pitt also sampling the car during the production’s ongoing work around the world championship. But for Brundle — a Le Mans winner and former F1 driver who’s never fully shaken the itch — it was pure joy.
“My favourite moment, personally, was driving the McLaren around Austin,” he said. “Which I just adored.”
Of course he did. The MCL60 wasn’t a title winner, but by late 2023 it had been transformed into a sharp, responsive bit of kit. Letting Brundle — who’s spent the last two decades explaining these machines to millions — reacquaint himself with modern downforce at COTA felt like the universe balancing the books. One minute he’s dodging VIPs and boom mics, the next he’s clipping apexes in a papaya rocket. You’d take that as your highlight too.
Taken together, his two picks tell the story of Brundle’s year: one foot in the sport’s past, the other dancing around its very modern edges. He remains the bridge between the paddock and the public — a paddock that’s grown louder, glitzier and more crowded than ever in 2025 — yet he still finds a way to cut through it. Sometimes via a neat line of questioning. Sometimes by accidentally interviewing a pop star’s brother.
Sky’s coverage thrives on that tension. Brundle isn’t always smooth, but he’s never dull. And there’s a reason why, even after another season of dramatic title swings, strategy bluffs and late-safety-car heart attacks, we’re still talking about a handshake that never was. Live F1 is about jeopardy, and Brundle brings a little of that to the screen before the lights even go out.
No grand declarations from him about who was best or what was broken this year — plenty of others will do that — just a candid nod to the moment that made him wince and the one that made him grin. In a season crammed with noise, that felt refreshingly simple.
Roll on 2026. And someone get Lewis Capaldi a pit pass with “definitely the real one” in bold across the top, just in case.
