Brundle on his season that didn't exist

On June 24 1984, a jubilant Martin Brundle stood on the Detroit Grand Prix podium alongside Nelson Piquet and Elio de Angelis. Recently turned 25, he'd beaten the odds to secure a stunning second place in only the eighth start of his Formula 1 career with Tyrrell.

Just two weeks later, Brundle found himself in hospital after shattering his ankles when he crashed in practice in Dallas. He was still incapacitated when, a few weeks after that, his team was thrown out of the world championship, and all his results - the Detroit podium included - were expunged from the history books.

As far as the statistics are concerned, his F1 career didn't start until 1985.

"I get up every morning limping," says Brundle today. "And then I see the Detroit trophy in my trophy cabinet. And yet I didn't exist that year!"

Tyrrell's 1984 season featured some magnificent highs as its rookie drivers, armed with an outdated Cosworth engine, took on a field full of turbo cars. "It was David and Goliath, wasn't it?" says Brundle. Alas, two superb podium finishes were followed by a controversy that very nearly forced Ken Tyrrell, one of the most respected men ever to field an F1 team, to quit the business.

At the end of 1983 Brundle had been invited to test for McLaren at Silverstone, alongside his Formula 3 rival Ayrton Senna and Formula 2 and sportscar star Stefan Bellof. There was no vacancy to be filled, and Senna was already set to drive for Toleman in '84. For his part, Brundle had his eyes on a seat at Tyrrell.

A young Brundle on the podium © LAT

"Ken had already declared that he was going to test the highest-placed British driver in the F3 championship," Brundle recalls. "Which was me, basically, because by a few races in no one was going to pass me. So that was always scheduled for November."

Brundle made such a good impression in the older 011 that Ken then let him out in the team's recently introduced 012: "I drove that for the afternoon and broke the lap record or something. But I didn't get the drive, because Ken kept saying he hadn't got any money."

Meanwhile, Tyrrell signed Bellof, who brought funding guaranteed by his mentor and F2 boss Willi Maurer. Brundle took a step closer to the second seat when he tested again at Rio. But he needed some cash.

"I offered Ken an imaginary sponsor with £150,000, on the basis that if I got into F1, I'd somehow find it. Then he called me down in February to say, 'Bad news I'm afraid, I still don't have any sponsorship. But the good news is I'm going to sign you anyway. And I know you don't have the 150 grand, so let's forget it and go racing.'

"It was a three-year deal with an option on his side annually, on November 30. I just sat in his office wanting to jump and scream and shout."

The big question was what could Tyrrell, now the lone Cosworth runner, achieve against the might of the turbo brigade? Brundle showed what was possible when he finished fifth first time out in Brazil.

"We must have been 250bhp down in qualifying - probably more than that - and 150 down in the races," says Brundle, who started 18th. "But it was super-driveable and nimble, and we didn't have turbo lag. We could just thrash it to within an inch of its life, every lap of the race. As the turbos struggled to get off corners, we could nip past them. We were like an annoying fly!"

TYRRELL'S INGENIOUS SYSTEM

Brundle was initially unaware of a clever strategy the team had come up with, namely a water-injection system that allowed the car to run light. It would then be made legal by a late pitstop to replenish the tank with a combination of water and hefty amount of lead-shot ballast, delivered by a device that for obvious reasons was nicknamed the 'duck gun'.

"I was a bit naive, greener than grass. We kept running out of water for the injection, and we would top up this tank partway through the race. So I just said, 'Why don't we put more water in? Why do we have to keep pitting?' Then Barry Griffin from Goodyear came up to me and said, 'I nearly fell over in the pitlane on those ball bearings that fell out of your car."

This was the era of pushing the rules to the very limit, and similar tricks were commonplace, and generally regarded as gamesmanship.

The streets played to the strengths of the Tyrrell © LAT

It was obvious that street races would play to the strengths of the 012, but in Monaco Brundle's hopes were dashed by a huge crash in qualifying at Tabac (pictured below): "The brakes went all soggy and the bias cable hit the throttle, and I hit the barrier. It was an accident that no one had a right to survive, to be honest."

Tyrrell's weekend was saved by a brilliant drive by Bellof in the soaking-wet race. As many of the big names crashed out the German was catching Senna - who was catching leader Alain Prost - when the race was controversially stopped. Even with half-points, third place was a superb result.

On the bumpy city streets of Detroit, Brundle had his chance to make his own mark: "Ken always thought Bellof was quicker than me, but he wasn't. He was always on my gearbox, or I was on his. He was more flamboyant than me, and was probably pushing the limits of the car more than I was, but then he made a lot of mistakes.

"Ken had come up with a system, 'If one of you thinks you're being held up, put your hand up coming past the pits.' There was no ship-to-shore radio in those days. In Detroit, Bellof was behind me, and I was behind a queue of turbos, all sorts of household names. He put his hand up, so Ken pulled me in and put some new tyres on, and next time around Bellof hit the wall.

"I had fresh tyres, but I often wonder what would have happened if Ken hadn't called me in, how much further I would have got. I came through on Piquet's gearbox, although he was coasting on the last lap, to be honest."

A PAINFUL LESSON

Brundle was flying high, but he came down to earth in Dallas the following meeting.

"We'd been super-quick in the morning, and I was convinced I was going to be on pole," he says. "But I'm pretty sure I picked up a left-rear puncture. It was a right-hander, and I just clipped the apex wall, and that pushed me across the track into the opposite wall, which took the front off the car.

"Then I ricocheted back to the right-hand side again, and by now my feet were sticking out the front. I tried to walk off until I realised my foot wasn't attached to my leg properly, it was just the tube of my skin holding it roughly in the right place. Makes me squeamish to think about it now!"

Even before the Dallas weekend, the wheels had been set in motion for the controversy that would rock the sport. In Detroit, governing body FISA investigated the 012's water tank, and discovered the lead shot. It determined that the water contained 27 per cent hydrocarbons, and deduced that the tank formed an illegal extra fuel system.

On July 18, FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre announced that the team was banned from the world championship.

"We got thrown out for having an auxiliary fuel tank," says Brundle. "Which is hilarious, frankly, because we just didn't need the fuel tank we had."

The charges were absurd. The ballast trick was marginal, but it wasn't the blatant cheating that was now being suggested. Tyrrell immediately appealed, so Bellof, along with Brundle's replacement Stefan Johansson, were able to continue to race.

THE TEAM'S FINAL 'STITCH UP'

By the time the appeal was heard on August 29 the charges had, mysteriously, been adjusted. FISA now admitted that the true level of hydrocarbons in the water was less than 1 per cent. Despite using the word 'infinitesimal' in its own ruling, it still regarded this as a serious offence, ignoring the team's plea that the water had been contaminated by being carried in an old fuel churn.

The lead shot was deemed illegal, as ballast had to be fixed by tools, although Tyrrell contended that tools were required to remove the water tank. In a total red herring, two holes in the bottom of the car, which were there to allow air to escape when the tank was filled, were deemed to provide an aerodynamic benefit.

Inevitably Tyrrell lost the appeal, and the team was thrown out of the championship, which meant the cancellation of all points and results, and missing the final three races. Sponsors departed, and valuable travel benefits, then worth $1 million, were lost.

Tyrrell's team was banned over its fuel tank © LAT

"I've been stitched up, I believe," said Ken at the time. "I don't know why, but that's my feeling."

It was no coincidence that Tyrrell had been the only team blocking a move to cancel a reduction in the fuel capacity for 1985, which would have harmed the turbo runners. Unanimity was required and, with the team no longer eligible to vote, unanimity was achieved.

Meanwhile, Brundle began to get himself fit for the following season: "I had some offers towards the end of the year, but Ken had this option on me until November 30. I cleared off to Barbados on holiday, and I hoped he wouldn't find me, as I had a chance to take a very strong drive.

"I was sitting on the beach and the bellboy from the hotel came along with my name on a little piece of paper. It was Ken telling me that he'd taken up the option. I thought I was escaping that! But he was a brilliant man, and he gave me a chance."

Martin says he didn't discuss the politics of what happened in 1984 with his boss until many years later. "Ken did start to tell me one day - he was dying from cancer at the time - but he got very, very upset, and said, 'I'll tell you another time.' But he died a few months later."

In 2005 BAR, the team that bought Tyrrell's entry, would be banned from two races for a fuel tank irregularity. But there has never been a penalty to match that applied in 1984.

"I had the prize money, I've got the trophy, and I've got a bad left ankle, just to remind me that I wasn't there!" says Martin. "I can't say it doesn't bother me - it does. You're out there risking your life, doing your best to find your way as a young driver, and all of a sudden you don't exist. And you know it was about politics, and not sport.

"It's 30 years ago and it doesn't matter, really. But I won't pretend that it doesn't bug me."

This article also appears in the February 6 issue of AUTOSPORT magazine