At a recent visit to Silverstone courtesy of SAF1 Team, a couple of us had the chance to chat with ITV's commentator, Martin Brundle.

Not usually a big fan of his, I was pleasantly suprised by his outlook on life and F1.

Toward the end of the season last year, Martin Brundle had been invited by Aguri Suzuki to go to Silverstone and drive Taku's Brazil-busting SA06. So one cold, but beautiful January morning he did.

Ten lucky saf1.org members were invited to go and watch - and afterwards Martin kindly chatted with us, and I had a chance to ask him a few things.

(This was a chat and not a formal interview - so please consider that I did not record his replies, I have summarised them... but I believe them to be accurate)

I asked whether he thought the posturing by Spyker and Williams (about the chassis) was just the usual pre-season foolishness, or whether they were serious. He thought that it was serious and that there were big financial considerations regarding championship points, money from Formula One Management (FOM) and TV rights. He added though that he didn't think that Spyker or Williams would be successful in their challanges. There were people in high places in the sport that thought the situation was in favour of SAF1 and Torro Rosso.

What about the SA06? He seemed to have been having fun out on the track - what is the car like? "Good" came the reply. He was indeed having fun and told me that he was impressed with just what SAF1 had achieved with the time and the resources they had. Martin was also grateful for the length of time SAF1 had given him - it is unusual for a commentator to have such access to the cars and to be given the full GP circuit to drive around.

We discussed rule changes and TV companies - how much influence did ITV and other TV companies have regarding format and rules? "None" there was no doubt in his voice at all - we (ITV) have no influence on Bernie or Max at all, we are often asked this and sadly we have never had an influence. We are spectators like you, and that can be frustrating. There is, he said, a common opinion amongst fans that we somehow do, but we don't.

Asked about the single tyre option, he agreed that limitation of choice was not going to give the best race. Tyre choice is such an integral part of performance and strategy that going from two manufacturers to one was not the best option. A lot of fun was going to be taken out of the sport. He remarked that races were being won and lost on tyre choice - Hungary, Indionapolis and Suzuka had all produced races hugely influenced by tyres in recent times.

He spoke about that fact that as an ITV commentator he now knew more about the Bridgestone tyres than most of the teams ... the SA06 had been shod with the new Bridgestones for his laps. That means that he was amongst the first to drive on them. An odd position for such an important aspect of F1.

I asked if we would be seeing more of SAF1 on his Grid Walks before the start of the race, and he was quite possitive about that, he would be looking out for both Taku and Anthony, but he said that it is often difficult to get to the people you mean to.

We were also allowed to eavesdrop on Martin's interview of Anthony for the pre-season show and for the Melbourne coverage ... It would not be right to report what was said in any detail, but I will say that Taku was heavily praised, as was the SA06. Both Martin and Anthony praised Taku's achievements in 2006 and Anthony admitted that it is going to be hard to beat Taku - he had experience in that at F3 level. I sincerely hope that they braodcast the entire interview because it is not often that you hear praise from Martin Brundle toward Taku.

Overall, I think that SAF1 Team won a friend that day, Martin had been impressed by the car, the team and the opportunity. Look out for a couple of special ITV features in the first few weeks of the season.

Oddly, Martin won a lot of respect from a couple of fans that day too - he had come accross as a genuine fan of F1 himself, and a likeable chap.