Aston Martin’s 2026 System 1 automobile has been staying within the storage on Friday in Bahrain pre-season testing as an after-effect of earlier technical points.
Having switched to a Honda engine provide for F1’s new period, Aston Martin is the one group to make use of the Japanese energy items and has struggled to date.
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No matter its mediocre tempo, the AMR26’s unreliability has been the most important situation at Sakhir.
The Adrian Newey-designed automobile spent 4 hours within the storage on Wednesday attributable to an influence unit situation; when lastly acquired the squad’s afternoon programme below manner, he quickly spun into the gravel entice after struggling what seemed extra like a technical fault than a driver error.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing
On Thursday, encountered yet one more energy unit drawback which interrupted his afternoon session.
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As of Friday at 1pm native time, the Aston is but to return to the observe – which is partly linked to a components scarcity, Honda and group ambassador have revealed.
“Our final run with Fernando Alonso yesterday confirmed a battery-related situation that impacted our check plan with the Aston Martin F1 group,” Honda said on social media.
“Since then, we now have been finishing up simulations on the check bench in HRC Sakura. On account of this and a scarcity of energy unit components, we now have tailored at this time’s run plan to be very restricted and consist solely of brief stints.”
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De la Rosa confirmed Honda’s prognosis and Aston’s consequent back-up plan.
“Yesterday we had some battery points on Fernando’s automobile, and due to this fact Honda is finishing up check simulations within the check bench in Sakura,” the previous grand prix driver informed F1 TV.
“On account of this truth, and in addition the truth that we now have a scarcity of components, we can be doing very restricted runs at this time. They are going to be brief, and they are going to be separated by a minimal of half an hour, so that can permit us to essentially look into the information and be capable of check some issues in these few runs. However yeah, we can’t be doing lengthy runs at this time, for certain.”
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Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
This setback compounds Aston’s points; the AMR26’s 1m35.974s testing benchmark is a whopping 1.4s slower than anybody else however new group Cadillac.
“Positively, we’re not the place we needed to be,” De la Rosa admitted. “We’ve got been the group with [the least] laps throughout pre-season testing. Clearly, we’d have most well-liked to do much more, however even though we’ve not performed numerous laps, we now have an unlimited quantity of knowledge to look into and put together ourselves for Australia.
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“It is a new set of rules, all the pieces is new. We’ve got a brand new companion in Honda, new gearbox, new rear suspension. There’s so many issues, truly, that we have already got an excellent understanding on, and we actually know the locations and the areas of the automobile we have to give attention to.
“So it isn’t the place we needed to be. We might have most well-liked to do many extra laps, however the quantity of laps we now have performed is displaying us a route for the longer term. So there’s numerous work to be performed nonetheless behind the scenes.”
Requested whether or not it may be a difficult begin to the 2026 F1 season, De la Rosa replied: “Yeah, in fact it will likely be. I imply, if you begin on the again foot, it is all the time harder.
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“However, , we now have nice companions. We’ve got Honda, we now have a unbelievable campus, individuals working flat out attempting to get us to the very best compromise for Australia. And that is the place we solely must work laborious based mostly on what we now have already discovered to date this pre-season, which is loads, and begin from there. It is a lengthy journey, it is a lengthy season as properly, however we nonetheless have a mission to be accomplished.”
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