Mark Blundell

From Formula Rejects Wiki
Revision as of 13:36, 9 September 2018 by Pasta (talk | contribs) (Formula One)
Jump to: navigation, search

Mark Blundell (born 8 April 1966, in Barnet, London, England) is a British former racing driver famous for his appearances in Formula One.

Formula 3000

Blundell drove for the Onyx team in the 1988 F3000 season as the reigning champion. He won the final race of the season in Dijon, also taking the fastest lap, on his way to a disappointing 7th in the championship, with 21 points, but easily beating his teammate Joachim Winkelhock. In 1989, Blundell switched to the Madgwick outfit, until moving to Nissan in Japan. Despite this, Blundell managed to finish 10th in the championship, scoring 11 points.

Formula One

Blundell moved to Formula One for 1990, joining F3000 team Middlebridge Racing under the historic Brabham name, partnering David Brabham. The BT56 was a troublesome car, with the team failing to pre-qualify for the first race at Phoenix in the United States, although Blundell managed to beat the faster Rial of JJ Lehto in an impressive debut. He also failed to pre-qualify in Brazil. The team had a good chance of pre-qualifying at Autopolis, given the traffic problems blighting the Rial team, but Blundell also encountered traffic on his runs and failed to capitalise. A further unsurprising failure to pre-qualify at Imola followed, but at Monaco, Blundell would make it past pre-qualifying and qualifying to have his first ever Formula One start. He finished in 15th and last place, being the only finisher to be lapped 5 times, due to the lack of pace from the Brabham BT56 chassis.

A further DNPQ at the Canadian Grand Prix followed before Blundell would gain a new team-mate in the form of Kazuki Fushida, Brabham being let go falling out with the team management. Fushida's appointment failed to get the team out of pre-qualifying for the next two weekends. At the British Grand Prix, Blundell and Fushida were able to take advantage of a wet pre-qualifying session and progress from pre-qualifying. In a similarly wet main qualifying Blundell was able to make the grid, in contrast to Fushida, but he would not finish the race due to an engine failure.

Heading into the Hungarian Grand Prix it was announced that Blundell would have his third team-mate of the season in the form of veteran Robert Kagan.

Career results

Complete International Formula 3000 results

Year Team Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 DC Pts
1988 Onyx Racing March 88-B Ford Cosworth DFY 3.0 V8 JER
3
IMO
2
PAU
5
SIL
17†
MNZ
Ret
PER
Ret
BHA
7
BIR
Ret
BUG
Ret
ZOL
15
DIJ
1
21 7th
1989 Madgwick International Lola T89/50 Ford Cosworth DFY 3.0 V8 SIL
Ret
IMO
3
PAU
Ret
JER
3
ASS
4
PER
Ret
BHA
Ret
BIR SPA LEM DIJ 11 10th

Complete Formula 1 Results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Entrant Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Points WDC
1990 Motor Racing Developments Ltd Brabham BT56 Ford DFR 3.5 V8 USA
DNPQ
BRA
DNPQ
PAC
DNPQ
SMR
DNPQ
MON
15
CAN
DNPQ
MEX
DNPQ
FRA
DNPQ
GBR
Ret
GER
DNPQ
HUN BEL ITA POR JPN AUS 0