The Alpine driver is making his F1 debut at the fearsome Jeddah venue this weekend.

He was 16th fastest in the opening hour of running, just under a second off the pace laid down by teammate Pierre Gasly who surprised with the fastest time of the session.

Doohan then slipped to 17th in Free Practice 2, and 1.6s away from the top of the timesheets as attention turned to performance runs mid-session.

“A lot to debrief, a lot to go over,” he said.

“The medium isn’t so bad. I’m still not as comfortable as I’d like to be.

“On the medium, we’re not too far away; we’re a tenth-and-a-half, two-tenths, and usually you can correct a lot of that with my driving.

“The soft, we’re just not seeming to click at the moment today, so not really able to take a step forward and just not feeling so comfy.

“We’ll have a good look into it tonight and we have tomorrow still in FP3 to sort and iron all our issues out before qualifying.”

Though yet to get on top of the soft tyres, Doohan still believes a berth inside the Top 10 in qualifying is a possibility.

“Looking at the potential of the car, if I can be where I am on the mediums on the softs, I think we can still be potentially pushing for Q3 and in the top places – between P7 to P10,” he reasoned.

“I just need to get comfy on that soft tyre and make sure that I’m able to maximise it.”

A final hour of practice remains in Jeddah, with Free Practice 3 scheduled for 16:30 (23:30 AEST) ahead of qualifying once the sun sets a few hours later.

2025 F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – Start time, how to watch, TV times & more