Soccer AM

Walker:Legendary commentator

I'm not saying this disparagingly, but motor sport is the only sport where you are actually putting your life on the line every time you do it.

Murray Walker
Quotes of the week

Murray Walker told Soccer AM that Lewis Hamilton's bravery is what makes him a great Formula 1 driver.

The legendary motor racing commentator, who retired in 2001, believes the new F1 champion has proved he has the guts needed to succeed in the sport, along with the natural physical abilities.

"It's partly physical," he said. "It's having fantastic eye sight, it's having fantastic reactions, it's having fantastic reflexes, but it's also about having a hell of a lot of guts."

"I'm not saying this disparagingly, but motor sport is the only sport where you are actually putting your life on the line every time you do it.

"So if you're wheel to wheel with Kimi Räikkönen or Felipe Massa at 200mph and you need to pass them before the next corner, you need to be pretty impressive!"

Murrayisms

As well as being the voice of motor racing for over 50 years, Walker became famous for his many commentary gaffes, which later became affectionately known as Murrayisms!

The Colemanballs series was often packed with Murrayisms such as; "The car in front is absolutely unique except for the one behind it which is exactly the same."

While Helen admitted that her favourite Murrayism was; "There's nothing wrong with car except its on fire!"

"You're standing there and the adrenalin is coming out of you by the bucket full," explained Walker. "So you just say what comes into your head and sometimes in the heat of the moment the wrong words come in, or sometimes no words come at all, but you just have to keep going.

"You don't realise you've made a mistake and if you did there's no point in saying 'I'm sorry I knew it wasn't Prost because he wears a yellow helmet' because of course by the time you have said all that, you're looking at something else and wondering why you're not talking about that."

Spectacular

Millions of people across the world tune in every fortnight for their fix of roaring engines and burning rubber, however Murray revealed that to truly appreciate Formula 1 it must be witnessed firsthand.

"Whenever I meet someone who has just watched a grand prix for the first time I ask them 'what impressed you?' and it's always the noise", he said. "And then the second thing is always 'I didn't realise they go so fast'.

"It's a terribly violent sport because of all the horse power and the noise and the speed and the jostling for positions. So it is tremendously spectacular and it looks a lot more spectacular when you are there."