Martin Brundle 'fears' for two F1 teams ahead of Saudi Arabian GP - 'Had a nightmare'

McLaren and Aston Martin could struggle over the "first half of the season" after a "nightmare" weekend at the Bahrain Grand Prix, according to Martin Brundle. He said McLaren "started at the back" last weekend and "stayed there" after the team could not get over their braking issues.

He added Aston Martin also had a "particularly difficult weekend" and warned it would be almost impossible for them to find a quick fix. The quick turnaround between races gives teams little time to "sort the car out," with the two British-based teams tipped to struggle again in Saudi Arabia this weekend.

When asked if McLaren had a lot of work to do after the first weekend, Brundle replied "yeah, they had a nightmare".

Speaking to Sky Sports News, he added: "They started at the back and pretty much stayed there.

"We know they had to make some late changes, some dramatic changes to their brake cooling which presumably upset the aerodynamics a lot around the front. They are straight into another race and then we're off to Australia.

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"So when you're on the hoof like that it's hard to really sort the car out quickly with the fundamental changes. You need reliability to go with that as well.

"So McLaren and Aston Martin had a particularly difficult weekend and you fear for them in the first half of the season like that." McLaren was running an interim solution to the brake problems which plagued them at the Barcelona test.

However, this did not solve the issues and the team instead gambled on a different race strategy. They were the only team to start on the medium compound tyre in an attempt to outplay the field.

They also tried a one-stop strategy but neither worked to their