Aston Martin concluded its Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain prematurely on Friday, completing just six laps on the final day due to ongoing Honda power unit issues. The team struggled with reliability problems throughout the week, including a battery-related fault that halted Fernando Alonso's running on Thursday. Despite the setbacks, team members expressed determination to address the challenges ahead of the 2026 season opener in Australia.
Aston Martin's preparations for the 2026 Formula 1 season faced significant hurdles during the second pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit. The team, partnering with Honda for power units, encountered multiple technical issues that limited its track time. Over the six days of testing in Bahrain, Aston Martin completed only 334 laps, far fewer than rivals like Mercedes, which exceeded 1,000 laps across all sessions.
On Wednesday, the AMR26 spent four hours in the garage due to a power unit problem, followed by Lance Stroll spinning into the gravel, possibly from a technical fault. Thursday brought another setback when Fernando Alonso stopped at Turn 4 during braking, caused by a battery-related issue, ending the day's running early after he completed 68 laps. Honda's trackside general manager Shintaro Orihara stated in a press release: "We collected data successfully; however, we didn’t achieve the accumulated mileage that we were targeting. Overall, we are not happy with our performance and our reliability at the moment."
Due to a shortage of power unit parts, Friday's programme was restricted to short stints. Stroll managed two installation laps in the morning and four more in the afternoon, totaling six laps, before the team halted operations more than two hours early. Pedro de la Rosa, team ambassador, told F1 TV: "Definitely, we are not where we wanted to be. We have been the team with [the least] laps during pre-season testing... but we have an enormous amount of data to look into and prepare ourselves for Australia."
Performance was also lacking, with Stroll's fastest lap of 1m35.974s placing Aston Martin four seconds behind Ferrari's benchmark of 1m31.992s set by Charles Leclerc. Across the Barcelona shakedown and Bahrain tests, the team totaled around 394 laps. Lance Stroll commented: "It’s clear the car isn’t where we want it to be performance-wise, and we know there’s a lot of work ahead... We’ll stick together, rise to the challenge and keep working until we deliver the performance we are looking for."
Fernando Alonso added: "We need to unlock more performance... On the chassis there is no doubt, we have the best with us. After 30-plus years of Adrian Newey dominating the sport, I think no one will doubt that we will find a way to have the best car eventually."
The AMR26, designed by Adrian Newey, marks the start of Aston Martin's Honda era, but the test highlighted reliability and performance gaps in the new regulations.
