Hunt Vs. Brundle

[Invincible]

Which one out of the two worked best alongside Murray in the F1 commentary box

James Hunt!!!

MURRAY "Fiery Glow from the back of the Ferrari"
JAMES "No Murray That's the Rear Light!"

OR Martin Brundle!!! Very cynical bloke according to Murray

MURRAY "A lot of people are debating whether Rosset is F1 material"
MARTIN "Well it's a fairly short debate Murray!"

Which one was better you decide!

[f1manoz]

Too hard to pick, as while I've been listening to Brundle since he starts, I only had a couple of years to listen to the great James Hunt.

To compare is too hard. Both had pros and cons.

To have a victor, I think we should ask Murray who he liked better? Although like Murray would, he couldn't pick either.

[Ray Bell]

Dead right... they both have or had their points... I like Martin's succinct statements, I liked James and his incisive comments too.

James will get the popular vote because he ain't around any more...

[Stephen Green]

You are right Ray, it will be a close run thing.

I think that overal I preferred James, his no nonsense and don't give a damn who I upset manner won many hearts. I didn't think anyone could hold a candle to him after he died. However, Martin has taken over the mantle and is doing a fine job to boot. It's a shame that he won't be given the chance to take over from Murray as No1 though.

I suspect the vote will go in favour of Martin, given there are many younger members of Ten-Tenths who know Brundle but not Hunt.

[badoer fan]

well, I have never heard Hunt, but I think Brundle is a total gimp, so therefore my vote goes to Hunt, who cannot possibly be any worse

[marcus]

I think Brundle is excellent both in and out of the car..he is quality material ...but then again so was James Hunt..what i did like about james was that he wasnt scared of giving someone a right good blast for something stupid..very funny at times.
but Martin brundle is one of my all time favs and i think in time he will be as good as james.

[francis]

I have listened to every race each of them commentated on and I really couldn't honestly separate them. Both are equally knowledgeable and articulate, so I'm not voting.

My only gripe about Brundle is that his interest in DC (he is after all his manager) sometimes becomes a little obvious though to his credit he does seem to try very hard be be equal handed.

Both James and Martin have been good and necessary antidotes to some of Murray's more idiotic moments - and those of you who remember - will recall how good they both are compared to Johnayah Palmer!

[TimD]

Nice one, Francis. I'd completely forgotten about Jonathan Palmer, and I suspect a large number of others had done so too.

I'm not voting either. I have absolute respect and great affection for both Martin and James. I've got every one of their commentaries combined, and it's a delight to be able to pluck one out at random to reminisce with. Even Jonathan Palmer had his moments - it's just that right now I'm a bit hard pushed to remember any of them...

[economy_waffle]

yeah.....

brundle - hunt was funny but was only in F1 for like a day compared to brundle.

[paulzinho]

Cant vote because i honestly don't know!!!!
I'm sure waffles wrong though...

[economy_waffle]

Originally posted by paulzinho
Cant vote because i honestly don't know!!!!
I'm sure waffles wrong though...

probably

[Ralf's Girl]

I can't honestly vote because I didn't watch F1 when Hunt was commentating (I was only 7 at the time), so I've only ever heard him on tapes. I do like Martin, but I know that both were paired very well with Murray. But when you have quotes like this to go at it's hard to decide...

MURRAY: What? There's a BODY on the track!
JAMES: No, that's a piece of body-WORK from someone's car

MURRAY: And first out is Tarso Marques in the Arrows. He's obviously going out early to generate some media interest.
MARTIN: I think he would generate media interest if he went out in the Arrows because Tarso Marques drives for Minardi


Too close to call...

[I Ate Yoko Ono]

Maybe Hunt was only in F1 for a day unlike Brundle.....

But Hunt, unlike Brundle, was a winner of both races and a championship at a time of supremely high competition (he was up against the likes of Lauda, Petersen, Andretti, Scheckter, Fittipaldi, Villeneuve, Reutemann, Jones, Depailler to name but a few winners and greats). By comparison Brundle Trundled his way through his F1 career and although almost Senna's match in F3 when it came to F1 a nasty accident in Detroit in his second season, some less than brilliant cars and, ultimately, an acute shortage of talent stopped him achieving the heights Hunt did, and even if he'd stayed in F1 for 30 years that fact wouldn't have changed.

The thread is about their respective performances as commentators rather than drivers though. I like Brundle as a commentator but he isn't the perfect foil for Walker that Hunt was. Allow me to elaborate.

Famously, Hunt and Walker didn't always get on. Murray used to spend the entire week before a race researcing the drivers, making notes about test sessions and the latest rumours etc. Hunt by contrast would sometims turn up at the commentary box 10 mins before the start of the race, perhaps a little "worse for wear", having just got the latest scoops that Murray would never be given because he had been speaking to his high up contacts in the pitlane at McLaren, Ford or elsewhere and would steal the show by coming out with these bombshells without warning during a quiet moment in the race.

If Walker erred (lets face it a common occurrence), James had a superb way of putting him down in his arrogant, English upper class public schoolboy accent ("No No Murray, I DON'T REALLY think that was the case at all now was it?" etc). Great entertainment.

When he was in a mischevious mood he was even better. I remember at I think it was Monaco '89 when Rene Arnoux in the Ligier had been off the pace and well behind his teammate all year to that point (Can anyone remember who that team mate was?). The Ligier team had switched to normally aspirated engines from turbos like everyone else (turbos had been banned the previous year). Arnoux said to the press he was off the pace due to this change in engine type becasue he had become so accustomed to turbos. Walker put this point across at some length. Hunt immediately came back with (and bear in mind this was live BBC TV on a Sunday lunchtime) "And all I can say to that is BULL****!". Not a BBC word on a Sunday lunchtime even now, let alone 12 yrs ago!

Walker admitted on TV he came very clos to punching Hunt once during a broadcast. They used to share a mike so they didn't talk over each other. If one wanted to say something whilst the other was talking on air they would tap the other on the back and (hopefully) the mike would then be passed over. One race back in the early 80s, Hunt was lying on his back on a bench in the commentary box, enjoying a G&T, and decided he wanted to say something. Instead of tapping Murray on the back he simply grabbed the wire from several feet away from Murray as it went past him to a socket, gave it a sharp tug and ripped it out of Murray's hand and, catching it, proceeded to speak on air whilst still on his back on the bench.

By all accounts it was the BBC producer that stopped our Murray bopping him one.

No, Brundle is a very good commentator but simply not as much the entertainer or raconteur as Hunt. Nor does he have his ear to the ground on rumours or the contacts Hunt had, this despite being an advisor to one of the top drivers DC (a debatable point in itself for another thread I'm sure!).

Shame you weren't around to listen to him. I grew up watching F1 listening to this thoroughly entertaining characer from the time I was 8 until I was 22 when he died.

Sadly, sorely, missed on the track and on the mike.

[Stephen Green]

Well I Ate Y O, I think you have put the point very succintly. James had that something extra that Martin doesn't seem to have, although on occasions Brundle has been seen to have a little dig and bring a wry smile to my lips!

But as you say, for those like us who were around at the time, James gets the vote by some margin.

[Alan]

I Ate Y O, I fully agree with you although Hunt didn't come across as arrogant to me, just mischievous.
I think Hunt is irreplaceable - just as Murray Walker will be.

[jiggly_puff]

to be fair to martin though he comes out with some really funny stuff too in his own way and fashion! if he was too like hunt - it would b wrong coz people would criticise him for trying to be like hunt. so in a way its brillient he has a different approach and style to hunt did! Both funny though!!!!

[marcus]

and today is james hunts birthday.

Happy birthday james and long may you be remembered.

[AGGY]

Never heard James Hunt,but he sounds interesting.

I like Martin Brundle,in fact i rate him as one of the best sports commentators i`ve ever heard.

James Allen should go back to the pits where his high energy and speed make him unbeatable,his performance at the French GP was awful.

[Alan Jones]

Originally posted by Ralf's Girl

MURRAY: What? There's a BODY on the track!
JAMES: No, that's a piece of body-WORK from someone's car

MURRAY: And first out is Tarso Marques in the Arrows. He's obviously going out early to generate some media interest.
MARTIN: I think he would generate media interest if he went out in the Arrows because Tarso Marques drives for Minardi


Too close to call...

Thanks for the laugh Steph, Murray and Martin IMO are a great team and I shall miss Murray, gaffs and all when he finishes this season.

[Invincible]

Two more good ones!

MURRAY: "And there are flames coming from the back of Prost's car as he enters the swimming pool!"
HUNT: "Well that should put them out then!"

MURRAY "I remember when Nigel Mansell made that move on Ayrton Senna when they were about to lap Stefan Johansson in 1959!"
MARTIN "I was born in 1959 so I think it was a tad bit later Murray!"

[f1manoz]

Originally posted by I Ate Yoko Ono
Can anyone remember who that team mate was?

Arnoux's team-mate in the Ligier-Ford team in 1989 was Olivier Grouillard, who scored his one and only point at the French GP that same year.

It was a great tragedy when Hunt passed one, but I think Brundle has proven to be a perfect replacement.

It will be a sad day when Murray is gone (from the commentary box.)

[Liz]

James Hunt of course.

Martin Brundle has a nice way about him and before Speedvision started carrying F1 in Canada I used to listen to him ... but James was the perfect match for Murray and I think I liked the contrast as much as I liked the commentary.

I always liked James Hunt in the way people like things that are not good for them ... although he was everything I should by rights decry, I thought he carried it off very well. And he reminds me, even today, of a time when pilots were not just hollow little PR machines who were hired because they look good in the sponsors' clothes and can hang onto the steering wheel and not outthink the electronics ...

I like James Hunt. I think were he alive and commentating today, he'd even find something to say about the modern stupefying world of F1 that would make people tune in just to hear him.

[economy_waffle]

both are funny so....erm i like brundle better as he is all i know!!! tho i did hear a story of james hunt's first commentating - lying down in the commentator's box with a broken leg and other broken bones!!!

[Stephen Green]

I think you have described james very well Liz. He was indeed somone you almost wanted to hate, but somehow grew to love. A little like a naughty child really.

He was a drunk, a drug taker and an out and out womaniser, and yet he was also a kind and gentle man from what I can remember and have read. I still miss his banter with Murray even today. Martin is good, but James was the cream!

[paulzinho]

I wish my dad would hurry up and find those F1 videos from the 80's!!!