Both drivers progressed to Formula One in 1984, with Brundle joining Tyrrell and making his debut at the Brazilian Grand Prix, where he finished fifth.

He took his maiden podium at the Detroit Grand Prix, but would later be disqualified from the season's results after the discovery of a technical infringement on the Tyrrell 012.

Despite another non-classified championship finish in 1985, Brundle retained his seat at Tyrrell and scored his first credited points with another fifth place at the 1986 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Brundle finished seventh in the championship for the second successive season with McLaren, with a season-best second place at the Monaco Grand Prix.

During this time, he also raced Tom Walkinshaw's BMW touring cars, during which he finished second against a field of international drivers at Snetterton.

Ironically, the driver he replaced at Zakspeed, fellow Englishman Jonathan Palmer, would join Tyrrell in 1987 who were once again using a Cosworth engine.

But while the former champions were initially competitive, with Brundle running third at Monaco until a flat battery forced him to pit for a replacement while his teammate Stefano Modena finishing third, Brabham were unable to recapture their early past success and Brundle, who had failed to pre-qualify for both the Canadian and French races during the season opted to move back into the sports car arena for 1990.

In the first race Brundle narrowly escaped serious injury or worse in a spectacular accident involving Jos Verstappen; his helmet took a heavy blow as the Benetton cartwheeled overhead.

In 1996 he teamed up with Rubens Barrichello at Jordan and enjoyed a good season, despite a slow start and a spectacular crash at Melbourne's inaugural GP, with regular points, fourth his best result.

He was especially strong on street circuits and similarly slow-speed, twisty courses – Monaco, Adelaide and the Hungaroring each produced 4 points finishes for him.

Having largely retired from motor racing, Brundle became a highly regarded commentator on British television network ITV, whom he joined when they began Formula One coverage in 1997, initially alongside Murray Walker, and from 2002 James Allen.

Brundle joined the BBC's commentary team alongside Jonathan Legard when they won back the rights to show F1 from 2009.

He also exhibited a fearless authority on some of the most sensitive issues – not least his gimlet-eyed pursuit of Formula one boss Bernie Ecclestone on the grid at Indianapolis.The production company responsible for ITV's F1 coverage, North One Television, also won the Sports Innovation Award for its Insight features, presented by Brundle.

"[12] Before becoming a regular commentator, Brundle was also part of the 1995 BBC commentary team whenever Aguri Suzuki was driving the Ligier-Mugen Honda, such as the 1995 San Marino Grand Prix.

With Steve Rider busy covering the England versus Kazakhstan 2010 FIFA World Cup Group 6 qualification match, Brundle co-commentated and presented coverage of the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway.

[13] Brundle came out of retirement again to race for United Autosports in the 2011 Daytona 24 Hours, sharing a Ford-powered Riley with Zak Brown, Mark Patterson and former Ligier and Brabham teammate Blundell; the team finished fourth overall.

[14] In June 2011, shortly before the 2011 European Grand Prix, Brundle completed a one-off Formula One test for the series' tyre supplier Pirelli at Jerez.

He completed a total of 70 laps on all of their tyre compounds, with the results and events of the day aired before the 2011 Hungarian Grand Prix.

His first appearance at the French classic in over a decade, Brundle worked hard to get back into adequate physical condition – using his son's race-training exercise programme for a year in preparation.

[16] Their clients include McLaren test driver Gary Paffett and British Formula 3 champion Mike Conway.

Brundle presented a documentary on British television in 1998 called Great Escapes, which showed generally live recordings, and occasionally reconstructions, of stories where human beings managed to somehow survive in face of various dangers or perils.

[17] In June 2013 he released his second book The Martin Brundle Scrapbook,[18] co-authored with Philip Porter, a biography that tells the story of his life through memorabilia, news cuttings and photographs.

On Friday 13 February 2009, Brundle presented BBC Look East's 6.30 pm bulletin, with Susie Fowler-Watt, reproducing his famous gridwalk.

[20] As a result of these comments, Brundle and the Sunday Times received a French writ from Max Mosley and the FIA for libel.

In the same column on 9 December 2007 he accused the FIA of double standards and of issuing the writ at the same time as clearing Renault of spying as a warning to other journalists: The timing of the writ is significant, in my view, given the FIA's decision to find Renault guilty of having significant McLaren designs and information within their systems, but not administering any penalty.

I have spilt blood, broken bones, shed tears, generated tanker loads of sweat, tasted the champagne glories and plumbed the depths of misery.

In their reply, Sky Sports stated that Martin Brundle had been reminded to "exercise caution in his language during live broadcasts."

In 1996, a golden ring (with either 'Benson and Hedges' or 'Brundle' written on it) and a blue drawing resembling a B (a representation of his trademark "start the engine" gesture) were added.

In 2017, Brundle disclosed that while covering the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix for Sky Sports, he suffered a heart attack whilst running to do the podium interviews.

[32] 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.