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John Watson, the former McLaren driver, alarmed by race in Melbourne
He believes the FIA and CVC need to sit down and discuss direction of F1
Only 15 cars started the season-opening Australian Grand Prix
Watson fears fans and sponsors turned off by Mercedes dominating
But he expects McLaren and Honda to recover from difficult start

Published: 17:00 EST, 24 March 2015 | Updated: 18:36 EST, 24 March 2015

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John Watson competed in 152 Formula One races over 10 years. He won five times, including the 1981 British Grand Prix for McLaren, and scored 169 career points. After leaving the sport in 1985, Watson has forged a successful media career, and today he writes for MailOnline.

Ahead of this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, he assesses McLaren's troubled start to the season and the disappointing curtain raiser in Melbourne.

John Watson (right) pictured last year with Sir Jackie Stewart at his home and Karun Chandhok and Damon Hill

McLaren have moved from Mercedes engines to Honda and it is a bit like any relationship; it takes time. Formula One has gone down the route of trying to cut costs, and as a result, we have seen a substantial cut in track testing which will hinder McLaren's chances of improving this term.

I would like to see teams allowed to test more simply because I think the public is beginning to wonder what we’re watching.

Are we seeing an exercise in extremely high-level technical games or are we looking at Formula One as an entertainment and sport? What is Formula One's objective? And where does it see itself going?

I understand that TV viewing figures in Germany for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix were down nearly 50 per cent on the norm and I don’t think that is very good sign.

Lewis Hamilton powers to victory at Australian F1 GP

Lewis Hamilton won the season-opening race in Australia ahead of Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel

Hamilton led from start-to-finish as Mercedes dominated the first race of the new Formula One season

Maybe in Britain it wasn’t so bad because of Lewis Hamilton's recent success, but there is a downside to domination, and we saw that at the turn of the century with Michael Schumacher and Ferrari, and then with four years of Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel.

My big concern, and I hope I am not being over-reactionary here, is that there are so many teams in the pit-lane that are struggling financially.

Giedo van der Garde's legal case against Sauber in Melbourne was hugely embarrassing and dominated the agenda at the Australian Grand Prix. It is systematic of where Formula One is right now. Driver talent is clearly secondary to budgets, albeit with a few exceptions at the sharp end of the grid. Teams desperately need funding.

My other worry is whether global companies are looking at F1 as a sport which they want to commit to. I don’t see any substantial company coming in as a title sponsor to any team.

Hamilton is bidding to become the first British driver to win consecutive Formula One world championships

Pastor Maldonado crashed on the opening lap while team-mate Romain Grosjean retired moments later

The sport, whether it is the governing body, the FIA or CVC, Formula One’s commercial rulers, need to sit down and say "what are we doing?" "what are we trying to achieve?" and "are we achieving it?"

Last year we did have some good races, but I don’t want to see another grand prix like Melbourne where at the end of the opening lap we had effectively just 13 cars running. Manor didn't get out of their garage. Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat suffered mechanical gremlins on their way to the grid. And both Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado failed to complete a lap. It is not acceptable.

Formula One let itself down and it is a shame because the opening round of the championship, particularly with Melbourne being the sporting capital of the world, had a poor race.

In the case of both McLaren and Honda, make no mistake, the achievement of getting back to the top as quickly as possible is absolutely paramount.

They are a team who have won multiple world championships, but the last two years have been their worst since 1981. But I am confident they know what they have got to do, and they have put steps in place to rectify their problems.

Felipe Massa thanks F1 fans after finishing fourth at Australian...

Jenson Button finished in last place, and two laps down on race winner Hamilton at the 2015 curtain raiser

Kevin Magnussen, who deputised for Fernando Alonso, waves to the crowd ahead of the race in Melbourne

This year there is a four-engine limit for the entire season. So, combine that with the limited testing, and restrictions on engines, and how are engine manufacturers, particularly somebody coming into this Formula, such as Honda, expected to catch up, let alone match, those who started last year?

Mercedes began their programme way back in 2011 and what you are seeing is the culmination of a lot of work which was done parallel to the team competing in 2012 and 2013. Renault were distracted with winning titles with Vettel and Red Bull while Ferrari didn't appear to grasp what was required.

That is fundamentally why Mercedes hold the advantage. They had the wisdom to start out ahead of the game. Honda are having to play catch-up in public which is painful for them and McLaren.

When you go through the design, manufacturing and development phases it is only when you put that engine in the car do you then realise what you've got.

There is no magic wand and any improvement won't happen overnight. McLaren have clearly got a lot of knowledge and expertise from running the Mercedes engine last year. But a Honda and Mercedes engines are completely different. Everybody in the partnership is going to need to be realistic and only hope that they can make progress at fairly large increments.

Fernando Alonso is set to return to the McLaren cockpit for this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix

John Watson poses with his McLaren on a visit to the team's factory earlier this month

McLaren say they have a good car, and I don’t doubt that. They have many clever, bright and good people there. It is going to be tough, but what they have to do is make progress at every race, and make that progress fairly rapidly.

What we saw in Melbourne was not representative and the best thing that could happen was for Jenson Button to finish the race, albeit last and two laps down. But the benefits Honda would have gained from that would be invaluable. Before then, their longest continuous run had been only 12 laps in Barcelona, so ironically it turned out to be their best test day. Jenson Button was certainly not racing.

The massive problem for Honda is that they can do very little, in terms of testing, once the engine is certified and in the car. Renault wanted to have an opportunity to produce a new engine this year, but the rules did not allow it. The earliest this can happen is 2016.

McLaren however, will be boosted by the return of Fernando Alonso, who is set to return from injury at this weekend's race in Sepang. I have not had a satisfactory explanation about his testing crash which ruled him out of the season opener, and I don’t think anyone has. I found it very weird.

But the most important thing I am concerned about, because I am a huge Alonso fan, is that he is back in the McLaren cockpit.

His contribution to the team will be hugely substantial. There is no driver out there who will be more driven in getting that car to the standard he would expect. He did not sign up to McLaren-Honda to run around in an uncompetitive car at the back of the grid.

John Watson was speaking to Phil Duncan.