177 Murray Walker Quotes

Murray Walker quotes

1. (Adelaide 1986, Mansell's tire blow-out) '[Rosberg] may have been prepared to move over... (tire explodes) AAAAAND LOOK AT THAT!!!! Out, and... and collossaly... that's Mansell!!! THAT IS NIGEL MANSELL!!!! And the car absolutely shattered... he's fighting for control... you can see what happened... that's Mansell out of the race.'

2. 'Anything can happen in Formula 1, and it usually does'

3. 'The car in front is absolutely unique - except for the one behind it, which is identical' (during a rallycross commentary from Lydden Hill. Both cars had been built by Norwegian rallycross legend Martin Schanche)

4. 'He's obviously gone in for a wheel change. I say obviously because I can't see it'

5. 'With half the race gone, there is half the race still to go'

6. 'Jenson (Button) will win, when the car is good enough for his talent' - free practice, Silverstone 2006

7. 'Do my eyes deceive me, or is Senna's Lotus sounding rough?'

8. 'Alboreto has dropped back up to fifth place'

9. 'As you look at the first four, the significant thing is that Alboreto is 5th'

10. 'I can't imagine what kind of problem Senna has. I imagine it must be some sort of grip problem'

11. 'He is shedding buckets of adrenaline in that car'

12. 'It's raining and the track is wet'

13. 'And there's just a few more corners for Nigel Mansell to go to win the Canadian Grand Prix...and...he's going rather slow....HE'S STOPPING HE'S STOPPING!' - on the last lap of the 1991 Canadian Grand Prix

14. 'And this is the third placed car about to lap the second placed car...'

15. 'They say clothes maketh the man... the clothes are Niki Lauda's, but the contents are me...'

16. '...Prost can see Mansell in his earphones...'

17. 'So Bernie [Ecclestone], it's some seventeen years since you bought McLaren, you've had some good times, you've had some bad times. What do you remember best ?'

18. 'What's that? There's a BODY on the track!!!'

19. 'There's a fiery glow coming from the back of the Ferrari'

20. Murray: And look at the flames coming from the back of Berger's McLaren.

21. 'And there's a 600 foot drop on my left..AND we're doing 120 mph... AND we're approaching a hairpin...OH MY GOD we're going to die...'

22. 'To Nigel Mansell: Nigel, first of all, would you slowly and carefully take your hat off? You've got an enormous bump on your head, can I show it to the viewers? Right up there? Ooh... I'm sorry...' [Nigel leans forward to show the camera as Murray pokes it with his finger !] Nigel starts laughing

23. (Murray, commentating on rallycross from Lydden, describes how a BMW driver has cut holes in his windscreen so that his visibility is improved in all the muck...)Looks through a completely clean windscreen, and that's of course the big advantage of being in front. (as he is doing so, the car crashes heavily into an earth bank...) And that's the big DISADVANTAGE of getting your line wrong!

24. From the Spanish GP 1995: 'and Eddie Jordan is in fifth place'... (actually Eddie Irvine in one of his compatriot Eddie Jordan's cars).

25. '...and he's lost both right front tyres' (which may have been accurate back in the days of the Tyrrell P34, but it was from 1995!)

26. '...Cruel luck for Alesi, second on the grid. That's the first time he had started from the front row in a Grand Prix, having done so in Canada earlier this year...'

27. James: 'And now what's wrong with Prost's car?'

28. 'Ah! Now here's Senna in the pits (for the black flag). No point in saying I wish I could lip read: I can't even see his lips! There's Ron Dennis bending over at the right. This is A-! Out gets Senna! For whatever reason and I just hope we can get a message about this. I hope we can get a message. Ayrton Senna with, with rage and impotent fury etched in every line of his body, reluctantly drags himself out of the McLaren.' (In reality Senna calmly stepped out of the car and walked away.)

29. 'Well let's, uh, lugsh, luxurrriate in a little hypothesis and try to work out what, if anything, is wrong with Alain Prost.' (Prost was being caught by Berger late in the race.) 'Has he got tire problems? Very unlikely. Is Prost having fuel trouble? Well, who knows? I think it's a bit unlikely. Is Prost having gearbox trouble? I can't tell you. And since P, uh, Prost is unlikely to come on the radio and let me know you'll have to guess along with me.'

30. 'ANNDD! We have a, uh, I - (laughing) - I, uh, I'm S- (still laughing). I have to eat humble pie again, for all the people out there. Uh, we have a lap scoring problem and, uh, I have to rather lamely tell you that, uh, it's still Gerhard Berger in 2nd place. It's Berger in 3rd position. In four- in- in-. Um, Boutsen in 3rd position...'

31. 'That's 55 laps completed by both Prost and Berger and and and and and the expeeerrrienced Alain Prost is really responding.'

32. 'And there's the man in the green flag!'

33. 'The Jordan factory is at the factory gates'

34. '...and there's no damage to the car.....except to the car itself.'

35. 'The beak of Ayrton Senna's chicken is pulling ahead'

36. 'David pulls across in front of Coulthard...' (actually Mika Hakkinen at the start of the 1998 Australian GP)

37. 'and I interrupt myself to bring you this....'

38. 'Unless I'm very much mistaken... and YES I AM very much mistaken!'

39. 'This is an interesting circuit because it has inclines, and not just up, but down as well.'

40. 'Two laps to go and then the action will begin, unless this is the action, which it is.'

41. 'This has been a great season for Nelson Piquet, as he is now known, and always has been'

42. 'And the first five places are filled by five different cars.' (Teams of course)

43. '...the lead is now 6.9 seconds. In fact it's just under 7 seconds'

44. 'Tambay's hopes , which were nil before, are absolutely zero now.'

45. 'You can't see a digital clock because there isn't one.'

46. '...and Blundell is doing very well in sixth position...in fact he's lapping 2.5 seconds faster than Blundell who is in fifth position'

47. 'We're watching the Finnish Driver who is third, but he won't for very much llllong...oh yeah, he might be actually'

48. 'And an enormous gap building before Mika Hakkinen goes through in third position...when I say enormous it's 1.5 seconds'

49. 'Schumacher is still the fastest man on the track, not only by virtue of the fact that he leads the Australian Grand Prix, but he also holds the fastest lap'

50. 'Eddie Irvine with smoke pouring up from the eng...I suspect something's locked up and he's out of the race'

51. 'And Alesi spins there...spins out of the race, surely... 'Yes!...NO! Alesi manages to keep the engine, does not stall, but of course he will have lost the place I think. No! he's kept the place'

52. 'Yes, the beauty of this race is that it is totally unpredictable'

53. 'Michael Schumacher leading Damon Hill by four tenths of a second or so, because it's moving...[image cuts from Mansell to Hill under Schu's rear wing] AND THAT'S NOT FOUR TENTHS OF A SECOND! That's Michael Schumacher!'

54. 'The Italian GP at Monaco...'

55. 'I'm applying intelligence and observation to the situation...'

56. 'Schumacher's appeal for ignoring the chequered flag is next Tuesday.'

57. '...the enthusiastic enthusiasts...' (Italy 1994)

58. 'Martin's got a bald spot - he won't be pleased...' (Germany, 1994, as Brundle retires, and climbs out of the car. Murray stops talking about the broken McLaren as soon as he sees Martin's head)

59. '...and Andretti is going very slowly - he must have an electrical problem of some sort... '(Andretti is touring on three wheels, having hit something solid)

60. '...but Here is Now and There is Damon Hill'

61. 'So now you're looking at the battle between Frentzen and Herbert for 7th place. Heinz Harald Frentzen in the Sauber Mercedes behind Johnny Herbert, behind him Johnny Herbert in his first race in the Ligier Renault...'

62. 'Ukyo Katayama is undoubtedly the best Formula 1 driver that grand prix racing has ever produced'

63. '...and the Peugeot cup of misery is filled past overflowing...'

64. Murray: 'And there are flames coming from the back of Prost's car as he enters the swimming pool.'

65. Rallycross at Lydden Hill. 'And Keith Ripp comes round Chesson's Drift, avoids the Hatter's bank...' [upon which little yellow Mini commences its ascent] '... BUT HE DOES NOT!!!!!' [Mini now 30 feet in air, lands heavily and performs six rolls before stopping] '...and BANG, BANG, OVER, OVER goes the Mini...' A quality moment.

66. 'Alesi is in second place and Hill is in second place...'

67. 'As you can see, visually, with your eyes...'

68. 'Andrea de Cesaris...the man who has won more Grands Prix than anyone else without actually winning one of them.'

69. 'And why would they want a bigger rear wing? Because a bigger rear wing means more downforce, more downforce means more grip, more grip means more transmission...'

70. 'Well done Ukyo, well done Ukyo, you are a Japanese gentleman!' [as Katayama got out of the way for Schumacher and Villeneuve, Jerez 1997]

71. 'Oh that's the Forti, and, it looks like, err, its Roberto Moreno's car , the err Brazilian .. I was going to say the elderly Brazilian , he's only 36 but he's actually the oldest driver in the race at the present moment, though he's just retired from it!'

72. 'Hill, Hill ... Hill is in, he's beneath me now... and he's got slicks! It's slicks! He got a new set of slicks! This is strange' (as it was raining!)

73. '....Schumacher crosses the line to start another lap, and there's nothing there!'

74. 'The Benetton handling superbly as ever. Williams have worked very very ####### this car at the beginning of the season.'

75. 'And we have had 5 races so far this year, Brazil, Argentina, Imola, Schumacher and Monaco!'

76. 'And Damon Hill is coming into the pit lane, yes it's Damon Hill coming into the Williams pit, and Damon Hill in the pit, no it's Michael Schumacher!'

77. '...and now, just in case there is any CONFUSION (operative term here) this is the race order on lap 19: David Coulthard leads and has yet to stop; Hakkinen leads and has yet to stop...'

78. 'A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play' [The long-standing rumour that Murray actually wrote this legendary slogan is completely false. He says himself that he 'was responsible for the administration of what is probably one of the best known slogans of them all', whatever that means...]

79. 'Nigel Mansell - the man of the race - the man of the day - the man from the Isle of Man'

80. 'An Achilles heel for the McLaren team this year, and it's literally the heel because it's the gearbox'

81. 'And now the boot is on the other Schumacher'

82. 'The atmosphere is so tense you could cut it with a cricket stump'

83. 'Alain Prost is in a commanding second place'

84. 'Now the Frenchman Jacques Lafitte is as close to Surer as Surer is to Lafitte.'

85. 'I don't make mistakes. I make prophecies which immediately turn out to be wrong' [Murray on his style of commentary]

86. 'I am inclined to go over the top and I know it. I am communicating an electric situation'

87. 'I like to think I come over as a slightly over-the-top enthusiast. It is a very exciting sport after all'

88. [after Derek Warwick spun at Monaco ending up facing the wrong way...] 'Now he must not go the wrong way round the circuit, and unless he can spin himself stationary through 360 degrees I fail to see how he can avoid doing so.'

89. [possibly Murray's most ecstatic moment when Mansell passed Senna to win in Hungary after starting well down the grid] 'He's going for it! OH MY GOODNESS...HE'S THROOOOOOUGH!!!'

90. 'We're now on the 73rd lap and the next one will be the 74th.' [Monaco 1992]

91. 'James has just nipped out to have a look at the far side of the circuit' [Actually James Hunt would leave the commentary box to smoke a joint!]

92. 'If they have any shillelaghs in Suzuka, they'll be playing them

93. 'He's watching us from hospital with his injured knee'

94. 'In his quieter moments he sounds like his trousers are on fire' [Clive James on Murray Walker]

95. 'Mansell is slowing it down, taking it easy. Oh no he isn't! It's a lap record.'

96. 'It's not quite a curve, it's a straight actually.'

97. 'And Senna wins the 1999 Monaco Grand Prix' [from the 1990 Monaco GP]

98. [hysterical as ever] 'And that's Alboreto OFF!' [long pause - somber voice] 'Now Michele Alboreto did not in fact qualify for the race, so how we managed to see him go off I don't know. We'll let you know.' [Even longer pause, now laughing] 'Now I'm not a technician, but it appears a shot of Michele Alboreto going off in qualifying has crept into this live transmission, thank you Mr. Producer, anyway that was qualifying, this is the race...'

99. [Alesi, then in a Tyrrell, was passed by Senna at Phoenix, or was he...] 'And Senna's going through on the inside, or is he, YES!, but now Alesi has the inside, side by side, Alesi! Wow! Great Stuff!'

100. '..and Damon Hill is following Damon Hill'

101. 'Jean Alesi is 4th and 5th'

102. 'Schumacher has made his final stop three times!'

103. 'And he has been lapped 9th, 10th, 11th'' (This was in reference to Jacques Villeneuve, who was leading at the time, and there were only 11 cars running anyway!)

104. 'Nigel Mansell had a problem with the wheel-nut on his Williams, then he went on to win brilliantly for Ferrari!'

105. Jacques Villeneuve is just making the last turn on the last lap. 'I'm going to stick my neck out here and say that Jacques Villeneuve is going to keep the Ferrari of Michael Schumacher behind him and win his first GP...'

106. 'And the car upside down is a Toyota' [During a BTCC race. At the time, Toyota were using the slogan 'The car in front is a Toyota'; in this race, both works Toyotas took each other out:]

107. 'It has all come alive in Hungary. There is the proof! Williams! Benetton! Ferrari! The Benetton is Berger and the Ferrari is Damon Hill!'

108. 'And Damon Hill is going under the drier part of the Monaco circuit, that's of course because it's got a roof'

109. 'Look at Michael Schumacher. He's on the ragged edge between flying off the track and staying off it.'

110. 'And that just shows you how important the car is in Formula One racing'

111. 'I know it's an old cliche, but you can cut the atmosphere with a cricket stump'

112. 'And Olivier Panis justifiably wins such a well deserved Grand Prix' (in which Hill, Schumacher, Alesi, Berger and Villeneuve all came off and only 4 out of 20 drivers finished)

113. 'People ask me who's going to be the next Hill, the next Schumacher, and I keep saying to watch out for Mika Salo' (Salo crashes a few laps later)

114. (Schumacher is coming out the pit lane ahead of Villeneuve) 'And Schumacher overtakes Villeneuve. Oh, no he doesn't! Oh, yes he does!'

115. 'Stop! Stop! Look! Look! It's a Williams, and I'm guessing that's Jacques Villeneuve, I can't tell you for sure because I can't see from here. And so Villeneuve retires .... it's Hill! Damon Hill is out of the Monza Grand Prix!'

116. 'They're now on lap 68, which means there's one, two, three, four, five laps to go before the end of the Hungarian Grand Prix' (hey, kids, learn to count with Murray.....)

117. 'And he's done that in a whisker under 10 seconds, call it 9.7 in round figures'.

118. 'Into lap 53, the penultimate last lap but one'

119. 'Nigel Mansell is the last person in the race apart from the five in front of him.'

120. 'I'm going to stop the startwatch...'

121. 'And Hill congratulates Schumacher. They're not bosom buddies, but they're not far off!' (Hill was actually critising Schumacher for heavy-handed driving tactics after the 1995 Belgian GP).

122. 'There goes Panis in the Prost. For years we knew them as Ligiers, because that is what they were called.'

123. 'And I usually say that if anything is going to go wrong with the car, it has done by now, but I'm not going to say that about Jacques Villeneuve.... Oh, I already have'. (Brazil 1997)

124. 'And Michael Schumacher is in the pits!' (he was out by then,although he was probably in the garage or somthing.)

125. 'Rally points scoring is 20 for the fastest, 18 for the second fastest, right down to 6 points for the slowest fastest.'

126. Murray: There's a car coming into the pits now, they're so unreliable with all those electronics on board.

127. 'And this is Ralf Schumacher the youngest driver in F1 at only 21 years old, and of course he is the son of twice world champion Michael!' (PF: Any rumours that Mick Schumacher already has a GP2 drive are entirely false, of course! And Ralf is Michael's younger brother, not son.)

128. Monza 96. Remember those stupid tyre stacks on the kerbs which got scattered around the track on the first lap? Camera cuts to single tyre in the middle of the track. Murray:' And look at that tyre! Someone had better go and get that quickly. (As if on cue, a marshall runs out and grabs it) WELL DONE LAD!!!!!'

129. 'Heinz-Harald Frentzen. The man with all the luck, and it's all bad.' (Qualifying Imola 97)

130. Murray: Eddie Irvine is in the pit lane.

131. Near the end. 'He (Jackie Stewart) will not produce a winner, but if he can produce second, it will be the next best thing.'

132. '...and if you look back 4 seconds...no, 31 seconds...!' (Imola, 27th. April 1997)

133. 'And Panis is almost literally laughing his head off in that car.'

134. 'If I was Michael Schumacher.... which of course I am not...'

135. 'And the track temperature has in fact risen in degrees!'

136. 'Well he's world champion, and we only get one of those a year.'

137. 'And the first three cars are all Escorts, which isn't surprising as this is an all Escort race'

138. 'I should imagine that the conditions in the ######## are unimaginable!'

139. 'Well, that is amazing, but I fear, absolutely... predictable!'

140. 'And as the race starts... I regret that we must leave Brands Hatch, join us again at 4.45!'

141. 'Three lights... four lights... five laps... (laughs) pause! Go, Go, Go!'

142. 'As an Englishman, I have my fingers crossed for Eddie Irvine in the Jaguar.' (Irvine comes from Northern Ireland)

143. 'Michael Schumacher is scything his way through the field... (Schumacher crashes) OOHHHHH! Schumacher out of the race!' (Canada 1999)

144. 'And this will be Williams' first win, since last time a Williams won!'

145. 'Jenson Button, in the top ten, is in eleventh position...'

146. (Jarno Trulli was on the screen, but just as Murray opened his mouth, it cut to his Jordan team-mate Heinz-Harald Frentzen)

147. 'There are actually seven previous winners of the Monaco Grand Prix, starting in tomorrow's race, and four of them are Michael Schumacher... there he is now!'

148. 'Are they on a one-stopper, are they on a two-stopper? And when I say who... er, they... er.. who do I mean? Well, I don't know...'

149. ''Will it rain?', said Jim Rosenthal. Well Murray Walker says 'Yes it will'... but then maybe it won't!'

150. 'Now, if Alesi has run out of fuel - and I'm going to use an Anglo-Saxon expression here - the Benetton mechanics are looking AB-SO-LUTE-LY FUUUURRRIOUS!'

151. 'Oh Jean. O-o-h Jean. You have got a MAJOR problem sunshine when you get back to the pits'

152. 'Damon Hill, there he is, he in... er, leading the Belgian Grand Prix, for the first time in a Jordan! He's leading the race, for the first time, since he led the Hungarian Grand Prix (of 1997) in an Arrows... apart from his earlier lead here, of course!' (It was actually the second time Damon had taken the lead after Michael Schumacher crashed out. You could just see that coming...)

153. 'Now, for real spectacular driving... watch this!' (Car flips over)

154. 'He's won it! And there was no question of him winning it! Except from his competitors!'

155. 'And he's gone off the track, into the kitty litter!'

156. 'I think those two may have touched just then!' (this is always played when contact is made, even if you've just run into the back of someone very hard at full speed!)

157. 'There's the flag, there's the winner, and there's the rest of them!'

158. 'He's right up tight behind him pushing hard!'

159. 'And now, excuse me while I interrupt myself.'

160. 'It must be Barrichelo, it must be Barrichelo .. no no, it's Schumacher!!! It's Schumacher!!! Oh my goodness!!! Michael Schumacher is out of the German Grand Prix!!!'.

161. (Adelaide 1991, race stopped in appauling conditions) 'Oh... hello-hello? That's Riccardo Patrese, going up to tell the officials what the time of day is!'

162. 'And Damon Hill takes the chequered flag to win the Formula 1 World Championship, and I've got to stop, because I've got a lump in my throat!'

163. Monza 1992: 'Mansell is 7.3 seconds ahead of Nigel Mansell and Berger is in 13th place...'

164. Monza 1988 (about the McLarens): 'Smooth... and very reliable.' (Commentator's Curse strikes half a lap afterwards, when Prost's engine develops a problem)

165. Adelaide 1995 (as Coulthard pits): 'And into the pitlane... (Coulthard understeers into the pitlane barrier) OOAAARRRGGGHHH! My goodness! David Coulthard smashes himself out of the Australian- I have never seen that before!'

166. Nurburgring 1995 (on Deletrazs antics): 'And what is Deletraz doing? (pause) Doesn't matter what he's doing, it's what Alesi and Schumacher are doing that matters.'

167. The running gag of the Grand Prix series is that whereas Murray, safe in the commentary box, sounds like a blindfolded man riding a unicycle on the rim of the pit of doom, the men actually facing the danger are all so taciturn that you might as well try interviewing the cars themselves.

1. Somebody said once 'Follow the money' and that is what it is all about.

2. He can't decide whether to leave his visor half open or half closed.

3. There are four different cars filling the first four places.

4. The lead car is unique, except for the one behind it which is identical.

5. Frentzen is taking, er, reducing that gap between himself and Frentzen.

6. Look up there! That's the sky!

7. Eight minutes past the hour here in Belgium - and presumably eight minutes past the hour everywhere in the world.

8. I didn't see the time, largely because there wasn't one.

9. I've no idea what Eddie Irvine's orders are, but he's following them superlatively well.

10. Stewart has two cars in the top five: Magnusson 5th and Barichello 6th.