Brundle: I'd like to see more cars on the Formula 1 grid

In a Sky F1 hosted Q&A with fans, Brundle was asked about the General Motors-backed Andretti Global 11th F1 entry saga, he spoke for most true fans when he said: "With my TV cap on and my F1 fan cap on, I'd like to see another team and two more cars and drivers on the grid.

"Andretti is a great name, but on the other side of the coin, they've never really built their own car, they haven't really dominated IndyCar in recent years, or any of the other categories. So it's not given that just because it's called Andretti, it'll be competitive," reckoned Brundle.

The Michael Andretti-led project grabbed headlines regularly this past year and ramped up when F1's governing body, the FIA rubber-stamped the bid after a long and strenuous due diligence process that eliminated two other serious contenders. Support our partners, please consider downloading the mostbet yukle application.

Federation president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and his FIA team gave the nod for Andretti Global to become F1 team eleven, declaring that with GM backing and the plan delivered by Michael was an "offer F1 cannot refuse."

The ball is now in the court of F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali to give the final approval despite staunch and vocal opposition to Andretti's foray by the current teams, barring Alpine who are willing to supply the new American team with Power Units until 2026, when GM will reportedly toll out their own Cadillac-badged PU package.

Brundle also sees it from the other side of the fence: "I can understand why Formula 1 and the other teams are going: Hang on a minute. F1 is in a very good place now, you can't just join this club when we've gone through the years and the decades of losing money and putting lots of capital expenditure and huge amounts of budget into all this.

"So I get it all. I think you have to look at it and say it's team A from America. Can they put together a credible competition on the grid, and what do they bring to F1? I think you have to lose the emotion of the Andretti name and take a rational decision. But I would like to see more cars on the grid," Brundle reiterated.

The former F1 driver turned commentator, now one of the most respected of the high-profile pundits, will attend 16 GPs for Sky F1 in 2024 and has empathy for colleagues and F1 staff who are set for a 24-race 2024 F1 World Championship season.

Brundle predicted: "24 races next year is going to be brutal on everybody and the thought of trying to do all 24 is tough. It always fascinates me when a Nico Rosberg or a Mark Webber or a Jenson Button comes along into the TV compound, and I'm like, ‘they’re mega-stars'.

"I wonder how they’re going to cope with this, and of course, they always cope with it extremely well because we're as sharp as a Formula 1 team in many respects," added Brundle.

The 64-year-old, reportedly worth $100-million these days, competed in 158 GPs, nine times a podium finisher but never a winner in an F1 career that began at the 1984 Brazilian Grand Prix and ended at the 1996 Japanese Grand Prix.

Notably, Brundle won the 1990 Le Mans 24-Hours with John Nielsen and Price Cobb driving a Silk Cut Jaguar by Tom Walkinshaw Racing. Prior to that, the Briton was the 1988 World Sportscar Champion with the team.

In 1997, initially alongside Murray Walker, Brundle got himself behind a microphone which included stints with BBC, before moving to the Sky Sports team in 2011. Apart from his commentary and insights on F1, Martin's grid-walks are the stuff of legend.