Hi, I'm Mark Blandele and you're listening to Beyond the Grid.

Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of Beyond the Grid with me Tom Clarkson.

Now I hope you're all doing okay during these difficult times of isolation.

Try to stay positive and I hope you enjoy the next hour and a bit because my guess this week

is a terrific former racer and a great racon tour. He's a man who stood on three Formula One

podiums in the 90s and is also a winner of the Lamar 24 hours and multiple Indy car races.

During his career he worked with some of the best drivers in history including

Erton Senna and he developed some of the most advanced tech the sport has ever known

while he was test driver at Williams and McLaren. He's also the guy who had the cards fallen

differently could have been driving the 1993 Williams instead of Damon Hill just think what

that would have done to his career. I'm talking of course about Mark Blandele.

Mark's Formula One story is not your average one. He was born into a family that had no real

passion for car racing. As a youngster he got his speed fix driving second hand cars around

his father's car dealership and it was through grit, bloody mindedness and talent that he

fought his way through the ranks to Formula One. It says a lot about Mark that when he got his

offer to race for Brabham in 1991 he immediately telephoned his friend Damon and suggested that

he take his place as the Williams test driver and while Mark went on to struggle in an uncompetitive

Brabham Damon thrived at Williams and was to get the nod alongside Alain Bross for 1993

and the rest is history. But Mark's a fighter. Having dropped off the grid he forced his way back

into Formula One alongside his friend Martin Brondle at Leesier and he then replaced none other than

Nigel Manson at McLaren in 1995 after a spell at Tyrell. Mark's was a roller coaster

grown pre-career and we talk about everything from the realities of living on a back of the grid

...