Aston Martin’s troubled winter testing was cut short. With just over two hours left on the final day in Bahrain the British outfit halted running. Lance Stroll managed only six laps on the closing day. Over the past weeks Aston Martin has already suffered several disaster scenarios; in the weeks ahead the team will have to throw everything at getting the car race-ready.
Across the whole winter — including the private shakedown at the Circuit de Barcelona‑Catalunya and the test days in Bahrain — the AMR26 completed just over 400 laps. By comparison, Mercedes has comfortably passed the thousand-lap mark. That underlines the scale of the problems Aston Martin is grappling with. The team has been plagued in recent weeks by engine and gearbox issues, while there are also cautious question marks over Adrian Newey’s early aerodynamic concept.
The combination of the radical design and Honda’s still-unproven power unit is proving a headache. Honda confirmed on Friday morning that the engine cannot yet run long runs; the powertrain is said to be short on power and is suffering reliability and cooling issues. Earlier this week Fernando Alonso stopped after 68 laps, with Honda accepting responsibility for a battery problem. That represents considerably more running than Stroll got on Friday; the Canadian had to pack up after six laps.
