Mark Blundell

Mark Blundell (born 8 April 1966) is a British racing driver who competed in Formula One for four seasons, sports cars, and CART. He won the 1992 24 Hours of Le Mans. He was a Formula One presenter for the British broadcaster ITV until the end of the 2008 season when the TV broadcasting rights switched to the BBC. Blundell returned to the track in 2019, driving in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for the Trade Price Cars team.

Blundell was born in Barnet, London.He first dabbled in motor sport at the age of 14, racing motocross bikes across England. At the age of 17 he made the switch to four wheels, starting his driving career in Formula Ford. In his first season he placed second in both British Junior Formula Ford Championships. The following year, Blundell won both the Esso British and Snetterton Formula Ford 1600 crowns. The next year, he began racing in the more powerful Formula Ford 2000 category, and won the BBC Grandstand series. He returned to FF1600 to compete in the European Championship racing, taking pole, and finishing fourth overall. In 1986, he won another championship in FF2000, this time the European title.

At this point in his career, Blundell moved on to racing in Formula 3000. In this time, he also started a few Formula Three races for TOM'S-Toyota. 1988 brought a switch to the works Lola team in F3000. Blundell completed the season in sixth place.

The following year, he made a deal with the sports car team at Nissan, landing a factory seat. He also managed a test drive with one of the top teams in Formula One – Williams. By 1990, Blundell had abandoned F3000 to concentrate on sports cars. That same year, he earned pole position at the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours race driving a Nissan R90CK.Blundell became the youngest driver to achieve pole position at the Le Mans 24 Hours, with a 6.040-second margin ahead of second place.

The year 1991 marked Blundell's transition into Formula One. His debut season saw a sixth place in Belgium with the Brabham Yamaha team. He also maintained his testing deal with Williams. The following season however, he was not retained by the cash-strapped Brabham team, and was left without a race seat in Formula One. He did, however, sign a testing deal with McLaren. Whilst being a full-time tester for McLaren, he also continued to race sports cars. That year, with the factory Peugeot outfit, he won the Le Mans 24 Hours, adding to his earlier pole.

1993 saw the return of Mark Blundell to the pinnacle of motorsport. A drive with Ligier netted him his first two podium finishes in South Africa and Germany. He finished tenth in the final World Championship standings. It was a one-year deal with Ligier, however, and in 1994 he signed with Tyrrell. It was not as successful a year as '93, and Blundell managed only one podium finish in the 1994 Spanish Grand Prix, which was the last Formula One podium finish for Tyrrell, however his reputation suffered as he was frequently slower than his lesser rated team mate Ukyo Katayama. At the end of the season, owing to lack of sponsorship, Tyrrell released him. This would prove to be a blessing in disguise, as the retirement of Nigel Mansell meant a return to McLaren for Blundell, this time, in a race seat. Teamed with future two-time world champion Mika Häkkinen, Blundell recorded five points finishes and once again took tenth in the final standings. 1995 also saw continued success in sports cars with a fourth place showing in Le Mans, but was Mark Blundell's final year in Formula One, as the signing of David Coulthard by McLaren meant that Mark would have to find a job somewhere else.

Blundell achieved 3 podiums, and scored a total of 32 championship points.

Out of Formula One, Blundell moved to the U.S. and joined the CART racing team PacWest Racing, alongside fellow former Formula One driver Maurício Gugelmin of Brazil. A crash in the early stages of the season in Rio resulted in a broken foot and ankle, and forced Blundell to miss several races. Despite this, he was third in the rookie standings with three top six finishes in the U.S. 500, Detroit Grand Prix, and Michigan International Speedway races.

1997 was a breakout year. Blundell came within one corner of winning the Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix before running out of fuel, an event he described at the time as the worst disappointment of his career. In the next race, he passed Gil de Ferran on the final straight to win the Grand Prix of Portland by 0.027 seconds. Blundell recorded further race victories in Toronto and Fontana en route to sixth in the championship. That year he was also named British Driver of the Year by Autosport magazine.

A massive crash early in 1999 left him to languish at the bottom of the table. He returned to PacWest for a final season in 2000. However, after finishing 21st in the championship with 18 points, he left PacWest racing by mutual agreement.

Blundell again crossed the Atlantic to focus on his sports car racing. He failed to finish Le Mans with the MG Lola team, though he and his teammates impressed. Off-track, Blundell joined ITV television in Britain as an analyst for the 2002 Formula One season. This position lasted until the end of the 2008 Formula One season when ITV lost coverage to the BBC.

Since 2001, Blundell's racing involvement has steadily declined, with only the occasional event. He did test a Dale Coyne Champ Car to help prepare Darren Manning for a one-off in the first CART race in Britain at Rockingham, and raced in the British round of the World Rally Championship. In 2003, along with Johnny Herbert and David Brabham, he finished second at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, completing a 1–2 sweep by Bentley. He also finished third at the 12 Hours of Sebring, finishing top among the Bentleys.

Blundell runs a management company, MB Partners, who represent drivers including McLaren test driver Gary Paffett, British Formula 3 champion and Indycar driver Mike Conway, Ferrari junior Callum Ilott, BMW backed racer Tom Blomqvist, IndyCar driver Jordan King, British F4 champion Kiern Jewiss and British GT driver Patrick Kibble. The company was founded by Blundell and his former teammate Martin Brundle, who stepped down from the company in January 2009.

In a newspaper article in 2011, Blundell was critical of oval racing in general, and of the 2011 IZOD IndyCar World Championship, in which Dan Wheldon had been killed.

Blundell's helmet is yellow with three red stripes and two yellow gaps in the middle, a blue stripe in the entire chin area and a blue circle on the top with his golden initials on it. The rear of his helmet bears the motto "The Will To Win" – a quote from his grandfather.

Complete International Formula 3000 results

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Complete Japanese Formula 3000 Championship results

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Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete Formula One results

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Complete CART results

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Complete American Le Mans Series results

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) Races in bold indicate pole position (1 point awarded – 2002–2003 all races, 2004–present just in first race) Races in italics indicate fastest lap (1 point awarded all races) * signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap (1 point awarded – 2002 just in feature races, 2003–present all races)