Schumacher, Newey and snakes in India

"We were going to do a track walk. But then someone told me to look out for a cobra at Turn 1, vipers a bit further around, and a group of wild boar. So we didn't do the track walk..."

Warren Hughes is a Chennai old boy - he contested the Madras Grand Prix in the 1990s in its Formula 3 days - and was back at the Irungattukottai track last weekend for the final round of the MRF Challenge. Now his role was as driver coach and engineer to promising Russian Nikita Troitskiy.

Not that Troitskiy would have been on the track walk anyway - visa issues meant he arrived late in India, missing the first test session on Thursday. Still, he did better than Giuliano Alesi, who along with father Jean found out too late that they needed a visa and never made it onto the plane.

What did the Alesis miss out on? A hot, dusty and chaotic Tamil Nadu vibe, but also a wonderfully warm welcome from the Indian people, which Autosport was privileged to be a part of. Not to mention a circuit that, for all the dangerous surrounding wildlife, became a favourite with the drivers, whose MRF experience to date had taken in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Dubai.

Eventual champion Pietro Fittipaldi compared it to Brands Hatch and Oulton Park, Mick Schumacher said "it's a great track with a beautiful ambience", and Adrian Newey, whose racing son Harrison is good buddies with Schumacher, said: "It's interesting talking to Harri and a lot of other drivers - their favourite circuit is this one.

"Some of the modern circuits can be a little bit formulaic, and for anything slower than a Formula 1 or LMP1 car they're just a bit too big and open."

Schumacher enjoyed his trip to India

Personally, I wasn't too sure about the Brands/Oulton comparison, because the topography is a bit flat. Having said that, the fast first turn (with spectating cobra) was reminiscent of Riches at Snetterton, and beyond that there was an interesting mix of flat-out kinks plus slower, technical complexes.

During a chat with MRF series ambassador and local boy Narain Karthikeyan, who started his career there and then went on to become a fixture of the old-school British tracks on his path to F1, he remarked "it's like a hot Croft".

So how did a track come to be built here? For that, you can thank the racing-mad Chandhok family. Karun's dad Vicky Chandhok, who as a leading light of Indian motorsport has been president of the country's federation, told me that his father Indu bought the land, and then was able to sketch the track design himself. Every boy's dream!

Jackie Stewart laid the foundation stone in 1976, and the track was finally opened in 1990. And, by the way, did I want to drive a lap in the safety car? Erm, yeah... So, after the local tin-top boys had finished their qualifying session, off I set to get a lap in, taking it easy but making sure I was reasonably swift as the next session was waiting for the green light. Even at this point, after a couple of days of track activity, you could see a film of silt across the track surface, legacy of the recent floods that devastated the area.

Fittipaldi wrapped up the MRF Challenge title

By doing my lap, I was pretty much the only member of the European party to drive a road car in India last week, because the public highways are utterly daunting. While talking with Tatiana Calderon, we raved about the 'racecraft' of the car, truck and tuk-tuk drivers and motorbike riders, their judgement exquisite as disaster was averted roughly every five seconds. "I come from Colombia, and even I think it's crazy," she smiled.

The competitors were bussed to and from the circuit each day - to give some indication of the density of the Chennai traffic, this was a 30km journey that could take up to an hour and 45 minutes to complete. The fact that they were all in on the experience together meant that friendships were forged that in all likelihood will last throughout their careers, while the bonding of some of the fathers over rivers of alcohol was also all too evident...

"The series is well run," added Newey Sr. "If you're going to do a winter series there's only New Zealand [the Toyota Racing Series] or this one, and I'm very happy we chose this one. The quality of circuits and the standard of driving are good, and very importantly it doesn't involve too much time off school [TRS drivers need to go to New Zealand for six weeks]. You can come out on Wednesday and be home by Monday lunchtime."

With MRF Challenge organiser JA Motorsport planning to evolve the series with a higher-performance car, it's hoped that bigger grids can be attracted for the 2016-17 season. For the campaign just finished, there was a hardcore of around a dozen drivers with a few one-offs making up each grid. If JA can expand that to roughly 15 full-season drivers, then those one-offs should bring grids up to around 20 of the new 'baby' F3 cars - great 'off-season' motorsport.

"What's planned sounds eminently sensible to me," added Newey Sr. Meanwhile, Schumacher, who apparently spotted one of the aforementioned pigs while on a lap in free practice, and then seemed to spend most of the Sunday evening party in bearhugs with his fellow drivers, said: "I enjoyed it. It was long hot racing, but for sure it's nicer than at home at the moment." Will he be back? "We'll see about it, but I hope so."

He, and everyone else, will get a great welcome again - as long as it's not from the Turn 1 cobra.