F1 practice LIVE: Lewis Hamilton in need of strong showing at Saudi Arabia Grand Prix as Max Verstappen arrives in Jeddah after illness

Sky Sports have added former McLaren and Aston Martin strategy chief Bernie Collins to their Formula 1 punditry line-up for the 2023 season.

Collins, who was a performance engineer at McLaren and head of race strategy at Aston Martin, will first feature on Sky in the paddock at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend.

Sky say she will feature at other races throughout the year, as well as at Sky Studios, and is the first addition to the Sky F1 team since Johnny Herbert and Paul di Resta left in the off-season.

“I am really excited to begin this new chapter with the Sky Sports F1 team and want to thank them for the opportunity,” Collins said in a Sky press release. “After many years on the pit wall I’m keen to embrace this new role within F1 from a viewer’s perspective and enhance their experience of racing.”

Collins’ role will “help explain and demystify all things team strategy and engineering for Sky Sports F1 viewers old and new.”

It comes after Leclerc was forced to retire from the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix due to an engine issue, in what was an early blow to his hopes of challenging Max Verstappen for the F1 title.

Frederic Vasseur, the new Ferrari team principal, said following the race that he was surprised by the retirement but a further investigation has identified the problem.

Ferrari said they have been forced to fit another control electronics power unit on Leclerc’s car ahead of the second race of the season, having already replaced parts in Bahrain.

Teams are only allowed to use two control electronics components per season until a penalty is triggered, which has given Leclerc an uphill battle as he looks to cut Verstappen’s early lead in the standings.

Formula 1 is once again coming under increased scrutiny for staging races in countries with poor human rights records after the brother of a man executed in Saudi Arabia last year insisted the sport’s silence “enables violence and bloodshed.”

A fortnight after staging the opening race of the 2023 season in Bahrain, F1 returns to Jeddah for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – a country where there have been 13 executions in the last two weeks.

Last year, 81 men were executed in one day shortly before the grand prix, with 41 from the Shia minority who had taken part in protests calling for greater political participation, according to the United Nations.

One of those men was Mustafa al-Kjayyat and his brother, Yasser al-Khayyat, insists that F1 is being used as a “tool to sportswash Saudi abuses”, in a letter seen by The Guardian addressed to F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.

“They use the spectacle of this sporting championship to distract from the murder of my brother and hundreds of others,” he wrote. “The grand prix carrying on as normal, without even mentioning the atrocities that have just been committed on that same soil, legitimises these heinous crimes.

“Silence is complicity. It is how the regime gets away with its atrocities and suppresses calls for democratic reforms. If you truly want Formula One to be an agent for change, rather than a tool to ‘sportswash’ Saudi abuses, please end Formula One’s silence.”

Exclusive interview by Kieran Jackson

Ted is talking about cheese. For a Formula 1 pit lane reporter functioning in a world of tyre compounds and floor specifications, Ted often finds himself talking about cheese. Usually at pre-season testing. A bizarre synonymity, some might say, and readers not drooling in the daily churn of digital F1 content may be a little lost already. Don’t worry, you’re forgiven.

Sky Sports’ ever-present pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz – of BBC and ITV before that – has a style of presenting so inimitable that the man himself has formed a devoted following of his own, hate it as he might. Ahead of his 22^nd year of pit lane reporting and 27^th working in the sport he loves, Ted’s methodology of fan interaction is constantly evolving. This year, forget TikTok: it’s all about TedTok. So, back to the cheese.

“TedTok was just too good for somebody to steal,” the 48-year-old tells The Independent, in the unusually formal setting for him of an office at Sky Studios. “So I’m just going to put nonsense about doing stuff with cheese on there.

“I put up a video of me and Anthony [Davidson] choosing the perfect cheese in Bahrain to carve away the venturi tunnels of the car to the floor edge… it’s harder than you think.

“You could have got a block of cheddar, but then it would’ve just crumbled away and the whole shoot would’ve been a disaster. This was 20 minutes and Anthony was quite right in choosing the right type of cheese… gouda!”

• Free Practice 1: 1:30pm
• Free Practice 2: 5pm

• Free Practice 3: 1:30pm
• Qualifying: 5pm

The double world champion, who dominated Formula One’s season-opening race in Bahrain a fortnight ago, said he has been battling with the bug this week.

However, he expects to be in his Red Bull for practice in Jeddah on Friday.

“Feeling fine again, after not being fit for a few days because of a stomach bug,” wrote the Dutchman, 25, on Twitter.

“Therefore, I unfortunately had to postpone my flight for a day, so I won’t be on the track until Friday.”

Welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit!

The fastest street circuit in the world plays host to the second race of the 2023 Formula 1 season, with Max Verstappen looking to pick up where he left off in Bahrain – where he led Red Bull to a one-two finish.

Yet Mercedes will be looking for a massive improvement after a disappointing showing last time out, while all eyes are on Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso too after they impressed in Bahrain.

FP1 starts at 1:30pm (GMT) on Friday, with second practice at 5pm. Stay tuned for all the updates!

Mercedes, so dominant in Formula 1 from 2014-2021 with eight Constructors’ Championships, had a season to forget in 2022 as new regulations caught them out and they finished third in the standings.

And Hamilton – who last won an F1 race at the Jeddah track in December 2021, 24 grand prix ago – admitted it was a “shock” when he first drove the W14 car last month, acknowledging that three teams are currently ahead of them.

“Once I drove the car for the first time, you start to do that [re-assess goals] with the challenges you’re facing,” the 38-year-old said.

“It’s a similar situation to last year – it’s a shock when the car isn’t where you want it to be but you have 100% faith in the people you work with. We’re not where we want to be and we need to keep working on it.

“We need the Red Bulls and Ferraris not to finish the race, maybe the Astons too, to be winning [ourselves]. It doesn’t mean we can’t catch them up…”