Formula 1 2023: All the news, analysis ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Australian Formula One driver Oscar Piastri is battling with an uncompetitive car and a co-driver who likely has one foot out the door according to F1 great Martin Brundle.

Oscar Piastri of Australia and McLaren talks to the media in the Paddock during previews ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia. Picture: Getty Images

McLaren will have to find “double the normal amount” from its planned upgrades if the one-time Formula One powerhouse hopes to match its rivals near the top of the grid in 2023.

That’s the ominous warning from F1 legend Martin Brundle to McLaren and its rookie Australian driver, Oscar Piastri, ahead of the Saudia Arabia Grand Prix on Monday morning.

It’s easy to argue McLaren had the worst start to the season of any team on the grid in Bahrain, with Piastri lasting just 14 laps in his maiden F1 start and star teammate Lando Norris crossing the line 17th after battling engine issues.

The car of Oscar Piastri of Australia driving the (81) McLaren MCL60 Mercedes is pictured in the garage after retiring from the race during the F1 Grand Prix of Bahrain. Picture: Getty Images

The Papaya features at the foot of many pundits’ power rankings and it’s not happy reading for Piastri and Norris, who for different reasons entered the 2023 season with optimism.

The young Australian has been touted as a star of the future, catching the eye of even Red Bull boss Christian Horner who believes Piastri has similar race-winning capabilities to reigning world champion, Max Verstappen.

He spurned an offer from Alpine to join McLaren for his rookie F1 season and the pressure is on all parties to hit the ground running.

Norris meanwhile is into his fifth season as an F1 starter and yet to stand on the top step of the podium, despite also being rated similarly to Verstappen.

Considered a world champion in waiting, Norris is yet to sit in a seat capable of consistently challenging for podiums.

Hear from Lando and Oscar after the #BahrainGP. 🇧🇭 Thank you for your support. 🧡 #FansLikeNoOther

We keep pushing. pic.twitter.com/6wYROhPWxP

— McLaren (@McLarenF1) March 5, 2023

McLaren’s young driver line-up is one of the most exciting in F1 but their car is far from it.

A monster upgrade package is planned for Baku – the race following the Australian Grand Prix — however Norris believes McLaren will “need a lot more” to be a genuine challenger.

And Brundle agrees.

“(McLaren) is a team that needs to find double the normal amount from an upgrade and that’s a tall order,” Brundle told the Sky Sports F1 podcast. “They think they know where that is.

“To have a slow car in Formula One is one thing; to have an unreliable and slow McLaren is a terrible thing, so they need to get that sorted out in a hurry.”

Norris’s ability to pilot a finicky papaya last season contributed to Daniel Ricciardo’s hasty exit from McLaren, which opened the door for Piastri to make his F1 start.

That pressure to compare favourably with a teammate is now on Piastri — and Norris sets a high bar. But how much longer will the Briton be his teammate?

Will Lando Norris of Great Britain stick with an uncompetitive McLaren? Picture: Getty Images

Norris last year signed a four-year contract extension to stay at McLaren to the end of the 2025 season.

But with murmurs that Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc could be agitating for moves away from Mercedes and Ferrari respectively, Norris’ name has entered the conversation.

“Lando – yeah he has time on his side, but the years are slipping past,” Brundle said.

“He will be asking the same questions as George, as Lewis, as Charles: ‘What are we doing about this? Tell me how you’re going to close the cap to Red Bull and who is going to do that and why?’

“It’s a reasonable question from a driver and I think if he doesn’t get the right answers at a suitable point, if he can jump into what looks like a race or championship-winning car then he’ll have to take it.”

Brundle believes Norris will have an exit route in his McLaren contract should the young star feel the papaya cannot produce for him.

“Formula One contracts tend to be about 100 pages long – he ought to have an exit route out of there,” Brundle said.

“My concern if I was in team Lando would be that the performance is dropping away each season. It’s not getting better and better. That’s a great concern in that respect.

“He will need to see some light at the end of a much shorter tunnel than he’s got now in terms of where it’s all heading, otherwise he’ll start getting frustrated.”

DOOHAN’S PLEDGE TO AVOID A PIASTRI DEFECTION REPEAT

Alpine’s Aussie Formula One reserve driver Jack Doohan says the team is “trying heavily to avoid” the same set of circumstances that led to Oscar Piastri defecting to McLaren.

Piastri’s move from Alpine to McLaren last year was the talk of the paddock and once the cards fell in place, Doohan was one of the major beneficiaries.

The Aussie Formula Two title challenger was promoted to Alpine reserve driver in place of the outgoing Piastri and now finds himself in a similar position to his countryman, in that he sits behind two bedded-in drivers, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

The son of five-time MotoGP world champion Mick Doohan has his eyes firmly set on winning the F2 title in 2023 and using it as a launching pad to reach F1. But there is a catch.

Under F2 rules, the reigning champion is unable to defend his title the following year. It’s why 2021 champion Piastri did not compete in 2022.

Jack Doohan, the son of motorcycling legend Mick Doohan, has his eyes firmly set on winning the F2 title in 2023 and using it as a launching pad to reach F1.

If Doohan is successful in his F2 title pursuit, it will mean being frozen out of a drive in 2024.

“If that means I have to wait a year to continue my relationship with Alpine, then so be it,” Doohan told reporters.

One of the key sticking points in Piastri leaving Alpine was his desire to get a full-time F1 seat as soon as possible.

McLaren approached Piastri to replace Ricciardo before Fernando Alonso had declared his intent to leave Alpine for Aston Martin. By the time Alpine offered its seat, he had already looked elsewhere.

Part of Piastri’s reported gripe was the team’s offer to place him in a backmarker seat, such as Williams, until a spot became available at Alpine.

But Doohan says he is happy for such a scenario to play out.

“(Alpine can) loan me out as an Alpine driver somewhere else where they can find a seat,” he said.

Multiple world 500cc World Championship-winning motorcyclist Mick Doohan (left) and son Jack in 2020.

“They are really trying heavily to avoid a situation that happened in the past and last year (with Piastri), so that they would have my best interest at heart, so it’s good to know that I can trust them for my future.”

Alpine’s top brass were publicly critical of Piastri following his defection.

Doohan was quick to declare he would not take the same approach.

“If there was a good plan in place to have me racing in 2025 or they restructure around it, for sure I would say that Alpine have done a lot for me and helped me with this past year in 2022,” Doohan said.

“And going into 2023 (Alpine) gave me good opportunities and amazing time to really bed myself in a Formula One team, so I owe a lot to them.

“Just to bail because they didn’t have a Formula One seat for me for one year, that would not be respectful and would not be what I think is correct.”

Jack Doohan during testing at Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi last November. Picture: Getty Images

F1 disaster as Ferrari’s nightmare worsens

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was on Wednesday hit with a 10-place grid penalty for this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The sanction was meted out by Formula One’s rulers the FIA after Ferrari were forced to change the power unit twice in Leclerc’s car at the season-opening race in Bahrain.

Ferrari then moved to use a third power unit for the race in Saudi Arabia, breaking the rules that only permit two changes in an entire season.

Charles Leclerc’s sparking car following Max Verstappen’s Red Bull at Bahrain. Picture: AFP

Leclerc, who is already 25 points adrift of double world champion Max Verstappen’s Red Bull after he failed to finish in Bahrain, faces further penalties if more parts need to be changed on his car ahead of Sunday’s race in Jeddah.

Ferrari’s new team principal Fred Vasseur explained what had gone wrong for the Scuderia in Bahrain.

BREAKING: Charles Leclerc to receive a grid penalty at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix#SaudiArabianGP#F1pic.twitter.com/mYvk0RMPHE

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 15, 2023

“On Sunday, we had two different issues,” he told Formula1.com. “The first one was on the Sunday morning, when we did the fire up, and the second one was in the race. Unfortunately, it was two times the control unit, the ECU.

“It’s something that we never experienced in the past. I hope now it’s under control, but we have a deep analysis on this.” The former Alfa Romeo chief, who took over from Matteo Binotti after last year’s reliability-hit campaign, added: “Unfortunately, we’ll have to take the penalty in Jeddah, because we have only a pool of two control units for the season.” In Bahrain, Leclerc was running a comfortable third when he experienced a loss of power on lap 47 and retired, Verstappen going on to win from Sergio Perez for a Red Bull 1-2.

Originally published as Formula 1 2023: All the news, analysis ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix