An F1 weekend is incomplete without Martin Brundle’s grid walk. While taking a walk along the grid, the F1 pundit often interviews celebrities, drivers, and team principals. At the 2024 British GP, Brundle caught up with rock band Queen’s lead guitarist Brian May. However, the musician snubbed Brundle which caused an uproar among the fans.
Now, Brundle has revealed that May was not at fault. Brundle’s post read,
“It is me who should be apologizing to Sir Brian May, not him to me for the grid walk on Sunday at Silverstone. I didn’t address him as Sir Brian, and I shouldn’t have approached him twice when he wasn’t up for a chat on live TV. Nobody is ever obliged to talk to me on the grid, or anywhere else for that matter”.
May did not seem interested in speaking with Brundle and was instead busy having a conversation with a Mercedes engineer. However, after snubbing Brundle, May apologized to the F1 pundit via his website. May stated that he was just ‘nervous of speaking about something of which he had little understanding’.
Brundle’s post was in response to this apology, suggesting that May didn’t need to apologize for anything. However, this isn’t the first time a celebrity has ignored Brundle during his grid walk.
Brad Pitt snubbed the Sky Sports pundit during the 2022 US GP grid walk. Moreover, Cara Delevingne also refused to talk at the 2023 British GP.
However, on that occasion, Brundle hit back at the actress by sarcastically saying, “Oh well, I’m sure it would have been extremely interesting“. While there have also been other instances when Brundle has hit back at celebrities, he once revealed that there is a good reason why he at times does so.
Brundle’s grid walk captures and gives the viewers at home an idea of what being on the grid actually looks and feels like. However, since his grid walks have often faced disruptions previously, the FIA introduced a rule, as per which celebrities cannot bring their own security to the grid.
Brundle referred to the same as the “Brundle clause“. He believes this clause helps him interact with more celebrities. Brundle said, “It must be the ‘Brundle clause’, and they’re obliged to talk to me. I sort of like it if they ignore me, to be honest.”
He then explained why he calls out some celebrities by adding, “I like to call out some of the celebs that I think are just using the grid a little bit if I’m honest. They don’t really have a passion. I know there are millions of fans at home, going ‘I should be on that grid. I’m a massive Formula 1 fan, not them’“.
