Aston Martin rely on two major assets after troubled start to 2026 season

Aston Martin’s global ambassador Pedro de la Rosa reflected on proceedings after a very difficult double test session in Bahrain for the British team.

A pre-season to forget for Aston Martin

The Silverstone-based team was the least active on track across the six days in Bahrain, repeatedly hampered by reliability issues and failures, to the point of ending its test programme early and opting not to return to the track despite having several hours still available.

“We had some battery related issues on Fernando's car. Since then a lot of simulations have been carried, are being carried as we speak in our test bench in Sakura,” de la Rosa commented.

“Despite the lack of running and mileage, definitely we are not where we wanted to be, but we have managed to gather a lot of data and this will give us the opportunity to have the next few days to look into the data and come up with solutions. We know which areas we really need to focus and improve on the car, which is very positive.”

Photo: Race Pictures

Despite a very complicated start to the season so far, Aston Martin hopes to rely on its resources — including its state-of-the-art Silverstone campus and some of the brightest minds within the team — to turn the situation around as quickly as possible.

“The new set of regulations are very challenging as well, but they're also fascinating. It was never going to be easy, we knew that, but we also have great resources, our campus in Silverstone. We have Sakura working flat out in order to get us where we wanted to be and we just have to push on.”

He finally added: “We have a few days before Australia as well and we are not where we wanted to be but that doesn't mean that we won't get our mission completed.”

Alonso sets out timeline when Aston Martin’s issues will be resolved

The two-time world champion remains confident that the issues affecting Aston Martin’s AMR26 can be resolved soon, despite what has so far been a nightmare start to the season.

Speaking to GPblog during the ongoing Bahrain test, Alonso explained that the team is continuing to work through every problem encountered with its 2026 challenger, while also outlining the timeframe in which he expects the situation to improve.

Read the full story here.

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