Aston Martin's 'ridiculous' pre-season testing revealed after early Bahrain exit

Adrian Newey, Aston Martin, Bahrain, 2026 — Photo: © IMAGO

Aston Martin's 'ridiculous' pre-season testing revealed after early Bahrain exit

Aston Martin have had a disastrous week

Originally written by Sam Cook. This version is a translation.

Saturday 21 February 2026 23:02

Aston Martin's F1 2026 pre-season testing has been called 'ridiculous' by a Spanish journalist, after the team left the Bahrain International Circuit early.

Aston Martin struggled hugely in Bahrain, with Fernando Alonso suffering issues in the AMR26 on Thursday, and Lance Stroll only completing six untimed laps on Friday after issues with the Honda power unit battery.

All of this came just a week after Stroll had suggested that they were over four seconds behind the top four teams in the sport, with Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull all looking strong with the new regulations.

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F1's wholesale regulation overhaul was expected to provide an opportunity for the ambitious Aston Martin outfit to catch up to that top four, but instead it looks as though they could well be scrapping right at the back of the pack at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Now, Spanish journalist Marco Canseco has revealed quite how difficult the situation is for Aston Martin, branding the team's predicament in Bahrain as 'ridiculous'.

Speaking on Marca's YouTube channel, he said: "The Aston Martin situation ended up being ridiculous. Three hours before the end of the last day of testing, they were already packing up after completing six laps with Lance Stroll in a reduced programme to avoid breaking another battery due to a shortage of parts and because the same thing was going to happen as on the previous day with Alonso.

Will Aston Martin turn things around in 2026?

The good news for Aston Martin is that the competitive order at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix will likely look very different to the competitive order at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.

The reason for this is because of the wholesale regulation changes, which different teams will adapt to at different rates, and development upgrades brought at different points throughout the season will likely see the field converge somewhat.

Design legend Adrian Newey has been tasked with trying to turn Aston Martin into a championship-challenging outfit, but he admitted as early as December that this may have to wait until 2027 or 2028.

Newey's radical Aston Martin car design has been the talk of the paddock, particularly during the first week of official pre-season testing in Bahrain, but without a strong, reliable power unit, the team are going to struggle.

Honda have already admitted that their power unit is facing issues, and that they are 'not happy' with neither the reliability nor the speed of their latest design, and they will be working hard to fix it as the year progresses.

F1 Aston Martin 2026 regulations pre-season testing