Some teams took to the track in early January while Aston could only do limited running in Barcelona before a worrying test in Bahrain.
If there was one team surrounded in the most negativity heading into the start of the 2026 season, it is Aston Martin with worries that the engine is not powerful or that the chassis is not built in a way to compromise it.
Both Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso have voiced their concern and now the latter has suggested that given some teams were on track in early January, they have had a month of combing through the data, a luxury Aston has not been afforded.
“Missing Barcelona was a big thing because it was not only missing the Barcelona test, but also missing the filming days before,” he said in Bahrain.
“You know, some people ran the car on the ninth of January, so now they’ve had one month analysing data and solving problems. This sensor here, that temperature there, you know, whatever.
“We didn’t run in Barcelona. We didn’t have any filming day before Barcelona, before here and now for us is really the first test here in Bahrain.
“So we are finding small issues here and there, every single run, and this is affecting a little bit the program. When you are not running clean run after run, it’s not really progressing the setup, if we have a program of testing three different stiffness on the suspension, we do one run and then something appears on data.
“We need to, you know, look or change the sensor. We go back again, but it’s one hour after, so the track is different. So for us we are finding limitations also on unlocking performance because we don’t run continuously.”
“But maybe the other teams, they found these difficulties on the filming days or in Barcelona the first couple of days, and we are finding them now.”
Aston has been backed to turn it around by ambassador Pedro de la Rosa who said Adrian Newey’s influence had already been felt.
“I don’t think that the team has changed that much. We are the same people. We are the same. It’s just the fact that since Adrian has arrived, his leadership is unquestionable,” de la Rosa told PlanetF1.com and others.
“The biggest difference I felt is, for example, yesterday, after a very difficult day testing here in Bahrain, he spoke on the technical debrief, and his leadership is so strong that all the team knows exactly what they have to do.”
