If you’re a celebrity, and you want bad PR, ignore Martin Brundle before the start of a Formula 1 race.
Before the British Grand Prix, Brundle tried to get an interview with English actress Cara Delevingne. First, either one of Delevingne’s people, or someone working for the Alfa Romeo team, expressed to Brundle that she didn’t want to talk. Brundle told the person that celebrities who are on the grid are required to be open to media interviews. This came after one of Megan Thee Stallion’s bodyguards tried to keep Brundle from interviewing her back in 2021.
Brundle then went to Delevingne to try and talk to her and she expressed confusion and also said she didn’t want to talk. And then to kind of cover her tracks, she said that she couldn’t hear anything anyway. To Delevingne’s credit, she was nice and respectful in turning down Brundle. Brundle walked away and sarcastically retorted, “I’m sure it would’ve been extremely interesting.”
While it’s fair to point out that no one should be required to do an interview if they don’t want to, it’s not only a rule that it is, but it’s good publicity to have a chat minutes before a Formula 1 race that’s shown worldwide. Most celebrities who are VIP’s on the grid are there for free either from Formula 1 or a team. We don’t know if this applied to Delevingne, but if you’re a guest on behalf of Formula 1 and you are getting a very expensive experience that’s covered by them, it wouldn’t hurt to take a minute to give an interview so F1 can show off that it’s the place where movie stars go.
It’s not like Brundle was going to ask Delevingne to break down why McLaren qualified so well. He’s going to keep it basic, asking what projects she’s working on or maybe promote a film in theaters that she’s in. Unless he knows that a celebrity is a grid regular and knows about F1, the only “racing” question Brundle asks celebrities is, “Who are you rooting for?”
While Brundle doesn’t take it personally, and in fact he once said he “sort of likes it” when celebrities ignore him, it doesn’t make the celebrity look great. This isn’t Delevinge’s fault, this is on her management team for not giving her a heads up that she’s open to being interviewed while on the grid. Because now she looks like a stuck up snob in front of the entire world.
Earlier in his grid walk, Brundle interviewed Florence Pugh who had a lovely chat with him. Brundle knows more than anyone, when it comes to the grid walk, you never know what you’re going to get.
