Brundle was born and raised in King's Lynn, Norfolk, the son of a motor car dealer. He began racing at 12 in grass track events in a self-built Ford Anglia, later moving into Hot Rod racing. He debuted in the British Saloon Car Championship in 1977, becoming the series' youngest starter. After winning a BMW touring car championship in 1980, he moved to British Formula Three in 1982, winning the Grovewood Award as the most promising Commonwealth driver. The 1983 season brought the battle that defined his junior career: a season-long duel with Ayrton Senna for the British Formula Three title, which Brundle lost on the final laps of the final race. Both men graduated to Formula One the following year.
Brundle's Formula One debut came with Tyrrell in 1984. He finished fifth in his opening race in Brazil and then took second place in Detroit, crossing the line less than a second behind Nelson Piquet. At Dallas he broke his ankles and both feet in a practice crash; the severity of the left ankle injury led doctors to consider amputation before he recovered, though with lasting effects that prevented him from running and left-foot braking. Later in the season, Tyrrell were disqualified from the World Championship due to a technical infringement, erasing Brundle's results including his Detroit podium from the official record books.
He remained with Tyrrell through 1985 and 1986 as the team struggled with mid-field machinery. In 1987 he moved to Zakspeed, where he scored the only championship points — two — that the German team ever collected in their five-year F1 programme. That same year he left Tyrrell to join Jaguar in sportscar racing, a move that transformed his career.
Brundle won the 1988 World Sportscar Championship with Jaguar, setting a record points total, and also took the 24 Hours of Daytona that year. He stood in for the chickenpox-stricken Nigel Mansell at the 1988 Belgian Grand Prix for Williams, giving a competitive account of himself. Returning to Formula One with Brabham in 1989, he ran third at Monaco until a flat battery forced a pit stop. He won Le Mans in 1990 driving the Jaguar XJR-12 before rejoining Brabham in 1991, where he impressed observers enough to earn a switch to Benetton for 1992.
The Benetton years were the peak of his Formula One career. Partnering Michael Schumacher, Brundle scored five podiums and finished sixth in the championship. He never outqualified his teammate but outraced him at several events and came close to victory in Canada before his transmission failed. A second at Monza was among his finest results. He was dropped from Benetton for 1993 and moved to Ligier, where he scored a podium at Imola and was the most successful driver that season without active suspension.
For 1994 McLaren gave him the seat alongside Mika Häkkinen in a difficult year in which the team failed to win a Grand Prix for the first time since 1980. Unreliable Peugeot engines hampered progress, though Brundle delivered a strong second at Monaco. He shared a Ligier seat with Aguri Suzuki in 1995 to satisfy the team's Mugen-Honda obligations, adding a final podium at Spa. His last Formula One season was 1996 with Jordan, partnering Rubens Barrichello; he finished the Japanese Grand Prix, his final race, in fifth. Across 12 seasons he scored 98 championship points from nine podium finishes.
Outside Formula One, Brundle was consistently competitive at the highest levels of endurance racing. His association with Tom Walkinshaw Racing and Jaguar produced a World Sportscar Championship title (1988), a Daytona 24 Hours victory (1988), and a Le Mans 24 Hours win (1990). He also competed in the American IROC series in 1990, winning at Burke Lakefront Airport in what stands as the only IROC victory by a British driver. He returned to Le Mans on several later occasions with Nissan, Toyota, and Bentley without adding to his victory tally, and raced the 2012 event alongside his son Alex.
Brundle joined ITV's Formula One coverage in 1997 when the network took over from the BBC, initially alongside Murray Walker. His pre-race grid walks, which began at the 1997 British Grand Prix, became one of the most-watched fixtures of each race weekend, a blend of journalism and unscripted human drama that brought him wide recognition. He moved to the BBC in 2009 and to Sky Sports in 2012. His television work earned him six Royal Television Society awards for sports broadcasting, and The Times described him as "the greatest TV analyst in this or any other sport." His son Alex became a racing driver, winning the 2016 European Le Mans Series in the LMP3 class.
Brundle was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2025 New Year Honours for services to motor racing and sports broadcasting. Canadian film director David Cronenberg named the protagonist of his 1986 film The Fly after Brundle, and the sequel's character was named Martin Brundle in full tribute. In the 2016 academic study that modelled driver versus machinery contributions across Formula One history, Brundle was ranked the 30th-best Formula One driver of all time.