Topics: David Beckham, Formula 1, Sky Sports
Martin Brundle once told SPORTbible about his ‘worst-ever’ grid walk that could be worse than his disaster with Lewis Capaldi during the Singapore Grand Prix.
On Sunday, Mercedes star George Russell claimed victory at the Singapore Grand Prix having secure pole position the day before, finishing ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
Ahead of the race, Sky Sports legend Brundle walked across the grid at Marina Bay Street Circuit to see which drivers and celebrities he could speak to before the action began.
As he toured the grid in Singapore, Brundle suddenly saw popular singer Capaldi, or so he thought, and decided to approach him for an interview, only to discover it was actually the Scotsman's brother.
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Things got worse for Brundle as after finally meeting the correct Capaldi, the Sky reporter accidentally left the 'Someone You Loved' hitmaker hanging after he reached out for a handshake.
But unfortunately for the 66-year-old Formula One legend, there is one other F1 grid walk moment that even he will admit was worse.
Across his broadcast career in F1, Brundle has unfortunately had to deal with more than a couple of difficult celebrity encounters on the grid with the likes of Kylian Mbappe, model Cara Delevingne and the late rock legend Ozzy Osbourne.
But while speaking to SPORTbible he revealed that there was one that stood out from the rest, even describing it as “a little bit scary”.
"I was in Qatar trying to speak to David Beckham and there were two guys man-marking me," Brundle said.
"Wherever I went, they were just looking at me! They did not want me to talk to David Beckham on that grid; the World Cup was coming up, wasn't it?
"That was a little bit scary because they were literally on the grid to stop me. So, I went round the back of [Lewis] Hamilton's car, and they went round the front and kind of just looked at me. That was a little bit odd.
"Shaquille O'Neal [too]. When I'm on American grids, I always put a longer cable on my microphone because I can only just reach their mouths. If the cable is too short, I can't reach! All of their sport stars are just huge.
"Shaq was having a picture with the Red Bull team and Max [Verstappen], and as he walked off after being with them, I went, but he wasn't stopping for me. He was like a man mountain.
"I nearly said 'short and sweet' but you can't say that when he is involved."
Thankfully for Brundle, the vast majority of his encounters with celebrities on the gird walk are positive, with even his awkward moment with both him and Capaldi later laughing about the incident.
