Hugh Peter Martin Donnelly (born 26 March 1964) is a motor racing driver from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
He competed in Formula Three and Formula 3000 where he won 3 races. In the 1988 International Formula 3000 season he placed third despite only competing in the final five rounds of the championship. He raced in Formula One in 1989 and 1990, until a serious crash during qualifying at the Jerez circuit ended his Formula One career. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Martin Donnelly’s father had been a keen amateur racer and Martin would travel with him to see races at Dundrod, Newtownards and Kirkistown. When he turned 17, he raced a Crossle 32F FFord at as many races as possible, on one occasion managing four, at Kirkistown, Mondello and hillclimbs at Croft and Donegal on a Bank Holiday weekend. The Crossle was eventually replaced by a year old Van Diemen and he won numerous races in Ireland, and got through to the final of the 1982 FFord Festival.
From this he moved up to FF2000 with a new Van Diemen, winning at Cadwell Park, Donington and Brands Hatch and he also dominated the Irish championship. There would later be a switch to a Rushen Green Racing Reynard and he also won the BBC Grandstand Series.
He competed in 1985’s British and Euroseries FF2000 championships, and took victories at the Nürburgring and Brands Hatch, but at the penultimate British race at Oulton Park he had to win to stay in title contention but it ended when he was knocked into the barriers by another car and he finished second.
Then came F3, racing a Ralt for Swallow Racing and victories at Donington, Oulton, Silverstone (twice) saw him finish third in the British F3 Championship. The team switched to a Reynard, and he did six races with them before racing for Intersport and they won at Oulton Park, Brands Hatch, Macau and took second places at Zandvoort, Spa, Silverstone and Snetterton.
He had a test at Donington for the Onyx F3000 team but despite being quickest by half a second, he never got the drive so returned to Intersport in F3. After winning an F3 race at Snetterton, Eddie Jordan asked him to race for his F3000 team for the season’s final five races. Unfortunately at Brands, Martin won but team mate Johnny Herbert had suffered terrible leg injuries in a crash so it was a hollow victory for him. There were second places in the Birmingham Superprix and at the Bugatti circuit, a retirement at Zolder but victory at Dijon and they finished third in the championship.
He stayed with Eddie Jordan’s team for 1989 (with Jean Alesi) and the season started well, including a win at Brands, but he would finish second to Alesi. At that time, he had signed as the Camel Team Lotus test driver (alongside Nelson Piquet and Satoru Nakajima) and there was almost a race drive in Brazil, as Piquet was injured, but he recovered enough to do the race. There was an amusing story from an Imola test, where he had taken a friend Ed along. He ran a roadside cafe and in their early racing days A.Senna, M.Gugelmin, R.Moreno, R.Guerrero and others used to eat truckers’ food there. As they were near the McLaren garage Ayrton dashed out, hugged him and said, ‘What are you doing here? Have you brought my bacon sandwich?’
Then came his F1 debut with Arrows at the French GP (substituting for an injured Derek Warwick) and he finished twelfth. Ironically, Tyrrell driver Michele Alboreto was unable to race and Jean Alesi took his place, which meant both of Eddie Jordan’s drivers were in this GP.
Fo 1990 he had a race drive with Lotus (with D.Warwick) though it would be a frustrating season with the Lotus-Lamborghini and 7th in Hungary was his best result. Unfortunately at Jerez he suffered a serious crash during practice which ended his F1 career. Martin was thrown from the car and ended up on the track, with the back of the seat still strapped to him and his crash helmet split by the impact. After being treated at the scene he was flown by helicopter to hospital, where they worked on him until the early hours of the next morning, but he was in a coma for seven weeks and during this period the doctors considered amputating his leg. When he came round from the coma he determined to get himself fit and back racing, though he spent four and a half months in hospital. Niki Lauda flew him to Willi Dungl’s clinic where he would undergo day long sets of therapies and exercises but Martin sadly realised he wouldn’t be able to get back into F1.
From there, in 1992 he set up Martin Donnelly Racing, starting in Formula Vauxhall Lotus and then moved into F3 in 1996, though the team closed in 2004. He became involved with Lotus, helping them with projects, such as developing the Evora, plus opened the Donnelly Track Academy and coached a young Spanish racer, Ramon Piñeiro.
In 2004, he raced a Mazda RX-8 in a Silverstone 24-Hour race and in 2007 beat 35 other Lotus Elises to win Class A in the Donington Park round of the Elise Trophy. This was closely followed by a race win in the 2nd Elise Trophy race of that day and later in the season he raced at Spa-Francorchamps. In 2008 he raced a Lotus 2-Eleven, drove in the 2010 Ginetta G50 Cup at Oulton Park and at 2011’s Goodwood Festival of Speed he drove a Lotus 102. In 2012 he raced a Lotus Evora then made his British Touring Car Championship debut in 2015, briefly driving for the works Infiniti-Support Our Paras Racing team.
2017 saw him racing in a Motul sponsored Lotus Elise in the FIA Lotus Cup Europe but during this time he was also involved as sporting director and driver development manager at Comtec Racing.
Alain Raine
I raced several times in FF1600 at Kirkistown in the 1980’s. Martin Donnelly Snr was a resident of the bar for most of the time and had probably a little too much to drink (quite a lot really) by the end day, which caused us (mainly my wife) one or two problems. This has nothing to do with his son who I’d seen grow from good FF1600 racer to very good GP driver. We happened to be racing in Northern Ireland when Donnelly had his horrible accident at Jerez and it was obviously extremely serious. Martin Snr was transported away from the circuit when the news came through. I can remember all us racers willing Martin Jnr to recover after the accident and it’s a testimony to his strength and willpower that he is still around today and enjoying life 🙂
In 1985 Martin Donnelly and Bertrand Fabi were contenders for the UK FF2000 Champions at the last race at Oulton Park. Fabi took Donnelly out at the first corner to win it. Fabi could have been a star but sadly died testing at Goodwood in a F3 car a short time later.
Martin Donnelly – A promising career cut short – from 
