Aston Martin's F1 shambles doesn't have quick fix

Aston Martin have had a tough start to the F1 season in Melbourne

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Friday 6 March 2026 17:02

There won't be a quick fix for Aston Martin with their F1 woes predicted to last 'six months'.

Aston Martin and Honda's F1 partnership has started off rocky, with the team not only being the slowest on the grid but also suffering severe reliability issues.

The situation has proven so bad, that it is widely thought that neither of the drivers in Fernando Alonso nor Lance Stroll will be able to finish the season opening race at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.

Article continues under video

Team principal Adrian Newey even revealed in an extraordinary Melbourne press conference on the eve of the new season that Alonso could do no more than 25 laps in the car, and Stroll 15, in relation to nerve damage such is the huge vibrating issue coming from the car.

That was never going to prove a problem for either driver in Friday's first practice session though, with Alonso being ruled out of the session with a Honda power unit problem, and Stroll only doing two laps before also encountering engine gremlins.

Brundle: Aston Martin don't have time

Brundle said: “Clearly, it hasn't doesn't have reliability, doesn't have speed. And the big problem they have is they're the only team running Honda engines.

"Imagine how many kilometres the four Mercedes engine power unit teams did in in testing. So they're not learning anything about deployment, about starts, about pit stops and. Everything sort of falls away.

“So they've got the resource, they've got the talent. They don't have time. Ironically, what might help them a little bit is if Bahrain and Saudi Arabia can't happen for what's going on in the world at the moment, if that buys them some weeks, but I don't think you'll see that. It'll take them six months to begin to really turn that around.”

Alonso keeping faith in Honda

Alonso has previously been scathing of Honda failures during a similar downturn in performance at McLaren between 2015 and 2017, but so far has kept a more encouraging tone to the problems at the Japanese engine manufacturer:

“It has been a challenge, but every day in Sakura [Honda base] they try to find solutions. I think since Bahrain there were a couple of tests done.

“Some of the solutions are implemented on the car now. I have 100 per cent faith that Honda will fix the problems because they did it already in the past. They will always be competitive and a top engine in Formula 1.

Aston Martin Adrian Newey Fernando Alonso Martin Brundle