Grim Aston Martin ‘4.5 seconds off’ F1 pace verdict made
Lance Stroll has made a bleak verdict about Aston Martin's 2026 F1 car.
A downbeat Lance Stroll has cast a gloomy verdict about the pace of Aston Martin’s 2026 F1 challenger.
The first Aston Martin to be designed by Adrian Newey has grabbed attention and caused a stir in the F1 paddock ever since its late arrival at the Barcelona shakedown at the end of January.
But amid the excitement and hype surrounding Aston Martin’s prospects for 2026, things have been far from smooth sailing for the Silverstone-based squad.
Stroll only managed 36 laps in the AMR26 on the opening day of the first Bahrain test before a “data anomaly” in its new Honda power unit left the Canadian sidelined for the remainder of the session.
While performance has not been the priority for any team at this early stage of pre-season, Aston Martin have lapped well off the pace so far in both tests.
Asked how much he thought Aston Martin could catch up before the season opener, Stroll glumly replied: "I don't know. I mean, right now we look like we're four seconds off the top teams, four and a half seconds.
“[It's] impossible to know what fuel loads and everything people are running, but, yeah, now we need to try and find four seconds of performance, so we'll see.”
Stroll joked one positive from the test was that "it's sunny outside. Weather's nice. Better than UK weather”.
Pressed further about the issues Aston Martin are grappling with, Stroll said: "It's a combination of things. Engine, balance, grip. It's not one thing. It's a combination.”
Stroll indicted Aston Martin are already facing a battle to find more performance from their AMR26.
"I don't think it falls from the sky, you know?” Stroll said.
"You have to improve and find performance in the car, in the engine; these are just usual things in F1, when you're behind the competition, you have to think about ways to extract more from the package you have, and at the same time also improve.
"No one stands still in this business, everyone is trying to find performance in every way, every weekend, all the time, so we're doing that, we're trying to extract more performance every day from the car and think also longer-term, bring upgrades on the PU side, on the chassis side.
"We will see in Australia where we line up and then we will see throughout the season how we progress. We're pushing as hard as we can, and that's all we can do right now."
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