The year 1991 marked Blundell's transition into Formula One. His debut season saw a sixth place in Belgium with the Brabham Yamaha team. He also maintained his testing deal with Williams. However, the following season, he was not retained by the cash-strapped Brabham team, and was left without a race seat in Formula One. He declined Williams' offer to stay on as their test driver for 1992, as he had his eyes solely on a full-time race seat. He told his contemporary Damon Hill about the vacant Williams test seat, which Hill eventually took. Blundell would live to regret this decision, as Hill ended up with a full-time race seat for 1993 and went on to win 21 races in 5 years at Williams, culminating in winning the world championship in 1996. The race seat taken by Hill would likely have been Blundell's had he accepted Williams' 1992 test-drive offer. Having failed to land a drive for 1992, Blundell eventually signed a testing deal with McLaren. Whilst being a full-time tester for McLaren, he also continued to race sports cars. That year, with the factory Peugeot outfit, he won the Le Mans 24 Hours, adding to his earlier pole.