Inside Line: Murray Walker and writer's block

James Hunt is probably leading the innocent and loving charge to Murray's chagrin! I am sure James missed him dearly.

I really have struggled to find words to describe Murray. One can start with a YouTube search for his name and you will understand what this man meant to motorsport. He won the hearts and affections of fans beyond petrolheads. Everyone, even my late grandmother knew who Murray Walker was and she had little interest in racing.

During my stint as an F1 photographer in the late eighties and early nineties, I often came across Murray and James for that matter in the media center at races.

While James did his own thing, Murray was always friendly surrounded by fellow colleagues and snappers telling tales and always listening intently. Very approachable and one of us really. This was before the internet and the whole social media messed up the pecking order of importance in life.

He was simply Murray who you greeted and he greeted back, exchanged some words and that was that. Honestly, no one was in awe of anyone in those days apart from the drivers. They were the stars, nobody else.

You were there for a job you loved with similar people. No fucking influencers and shit like that.

Also its worth noting that today the F1 coverage by commentators on Sky is superb and with Martin Brundle, Karun Chandhok and the team, it is like being right in there like never before.

The information they put out during testing - relevant and irrelevant - is daunting in quantity and beautiful to listen to during lockdown. They put us right there trackside and in the pits. We have never been so lucky as TV viewers.

But the Sky F1 team will be first to admit they are backed by a formidable network of behind the scenes people that surely amount to a dozen or more, live at the tracks and monitoring things from base station.

In stark contrast, Murray was alone. Yes alone doing all that. Data gathering, quote getting, pinning photocopies on the windows of rat hole commentary boxes and thus armed, he talked F1 non-stop.

So he 'occasionally' got it wrong but the man did launch an incredible repertoire of quotes that have launched a billion smiles and will continue to do so.

Motorsport is my religion for as long as I can remember. I was in my late teens when Murray Walker and James Hunt became the voice of my church. From 1980 to 2000 I hardly missed a grand prix and the ones I did miss I have watched on the superb F1 TV archive.

On Sundays, for 20 years, Murray preached to me the gospel of Formula 1

During my abovementioned ponder I was toying with the never-ending debate of who the F1 greatest really are in my chronological order of sorts:

Juan Manuel Fangio, Alberto Ascari, Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Murray Walker, Niki Lauda, Gilles Villeneuve, Nelson Piquet, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher, Mika Hakkinen, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton. Enough said.

In closing a suggestion for Formula 1 chiefs: Immortalise Murray with the famous and so familiar: Three Lights, Four Lights, Five Lights. Pause. Go! Go! Go! soundtrack at the start of this year's grand prix races. It would be a cool touch to keep him as the voice of our sport which he will forever be.

RIP Murray and thank you for the memories.