Lewis Hamilton used to regularly chat with Sky Sports reporter Martin Brundle on the grid before races but not any more.

Lewis Hamilton has stopped talking to Martin Brundle during his famous Grand Prix grid walks, according to the television reporter himself. The former F1 driver turned to media work after retiring from the sport in 1996 and has been a fixture of Sky Sports’ coverage for the past 11 years.

Before each race, the 63-year-old will make his way up and down the starting grid, interviewing whichever drivers and celebrities he can manage to grab a word with. But in an interview with GQ, he has explained that there are some drivers that will “never talk to him” and seven-time world champion Hamilton is now one of them.

Brundle said: “I never tried to dropkick them or get clever with the questions. I think that would be unfair, so it tends to be quite happy and smashy and nicey conversation. I’m not really going to be hitting them with an, ‘I heard your contract is up soon’ or something like that. It’s going to be relevant to the race, but generally speaking they trust me.

“A few of them will just shake their head and then even apologise later on. Or some come up to me in the paddock and go, ‘You haven’t seen me on the grid for ages, just come and talk to me on the grid’. And then others will never talk. Lewis [Hamilton] used to talk to me a lot and then stopped. So, we take it as it comes.”

Martin Brundle’s pre-race grid walks have become something of a tradition in F1. (Image: Getty)

Brundle, who raced for both McLaren and Williams during his F1 career, said that some drivers will approach him wanting an interview but not Hamilton.

The pair worked together on a Sky Sports show in 2020 that celebrated the 70th anniversary Grand Prix, but apart from that one-off special, they have not conducted a conventional interview since 2019.

Hamilton’s reluctance to talk on the grid could possibly be attributed to a succession of years where he has not been able to stake a credible claim for the F1 world championship in a period that has been dominated by Max Verstappen.

As a result, Brundle does not bother Hamilton for grid interviews anymore and when asked by GQ if he felt uncomfortable approaching some drivers or celebrities he explained that it all depends on the individual.

Martin Brundle interviewing Lewis Hamilton (right) at the British Grand Prix. (Image: Getty)

He said: “I thought that about David Beckham, and then eventually I did get in his face in Miami. I was being man-marked by a couple of guys in Qatar that didn’t want anybody near him there. So, I was pretty determined to speak to him.

“And then when I did, I thought, ‘I don’t know why I bothered’, basically. I didn’t feel good about it, particularly. I don’t like bothering people. If they don’t want to talk to you, they don’t want to talk to you. There’s plenty of people who do.

“You’ve got to remember: I’ve been on a Formula 1 grid for 38 years, well over half the life of Formula 1. I’ve been to well over half the Grand Prix in the history of Formula 1, so I feel pretty comfortable in that space. I feel it’s my territory.”