Martin Brundle says leading BBC coverage in 2011 made him a better commentator

Brundle became lead commentator for the BBC in 2011, standing alongside his former rival David Coulthard in the box, after Jonathan Legard was dropped from the line-up the previous winter.

Brundle has switched to Sky Sports this year and will now revert to his preferred 'expert' co-commentary role for qualifying and races on the satellite service, alongside former BBC 5 Live radio presenter David Croft.

"One thing is absolutely for sure, having now done a year of lead commentating," Brundle said when asked by AUTOSPORT at a media briefing for Sky's new F1 HD channel, "I will now be a better co-comm.

"I have now realised some of the challenges there are being a lead which I hadn't experienced before. I'd kind of sensed it, but hadn't it experienced it, so when Murray [Walker] used to look at me as if to say 'Shut up!' I now know why."

Brundle added that he is much more comfortable in the co-commentator's role, a job he took up for ITV in 1997 after quitting driving in F1, and then continued when BBC took over the coverage for 2009.

"I much prefer being the co-comm," he said. "I realised halfway through last year when I was lead comm - which I enjoyed doing, and I think it worked well with DC. I got a lot of nice comments; I mean there were a lot of people who said we couldn't carry the comm box as well, but we had a four hour and four minute race [in Canada] where we carried it just fine. But I prefer to be the co-comm.

"And then when I did the rehearsal the other day [for Sky], it just absolutely cemented that in my head. I had to force being lead commentator whereas I don't have to do that with co-comm."