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The start of the 2026 Formula 1 season has been a disaster for Aston Martin, but team principal Adrian Newey is looking beyond the issues they’re encountering with their new Honda power unit.
No team completed fewer laps during the first test in Bahrain than Aston Martin, including newcomers Cadillac.
When the AMR26 was on track, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso weren’t going very fast.
Name the one driver you think is most likely to lose their F1 seat in 2026 👇
Stroll complained that Aston Martin were four seconds per lap off the pace, and Alonso lamented the team’s reliability issues during the first three days at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Journalist Mark Hughes has taken a closer look at what’s going on behind the scenes at Aston Martin under the leadership of Adrian Newey.
Despite new power unit suppliers, Honda having some serious issues with their engine, Newey is focusing his time away from that to concentrate on other pressing matters.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Aston Martin F1 team principal Adrian Newey
Adrian Newey doing ‘a lot of delegating’ as Aston Martin’s horror start to 2026 continues
Hughes was reflecting on the opening days of testing on the Motor Sport Magazine Podcast.
Talking about Aston Martin’s early performance, he said: “I think there will be a lot of delegating going on.
“But he will certainly have no obstacle to going about achieving his technical vision, and I think yes, he will really just want attention away from him, so I can understand that he’s not getting involved in the arguments about the Mercedes engine and things like that at the moment because he will feel his focus needs to be elsewhere.
Williams put in the most laps during the first week of pre-season testing in Bahrain – Is this a reassuring sign after they missed the Barcelona shakedown?
“But I think once we get up and running and the car becomes competitive, and I don’t think you’re going to be seeing him shy away from any controversy because he has his own very strong views on things, and he’s not shy about saying them.
“He might deliver them in a very quiet way, but they’re very often strong words.
“So I think, at the moment, what you’re seeing is just he can’t be bothered with anything that’s taken him away from that focus. That focus is intense at the moment.”
READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage
What’s going wrong between Honda and Aston Martin at the start of the 2026 F1 season?
After turning up at the Barcelona shakedown nearly four days late, people were at least encouraged by the car that Newey had designed.
Aston Martin have come up with some ‘extreme’ concepts, but Bahrain showed just how far off the pace they are compared to the other 10 teams.
Alonso and Stroll completed 206 laps between them, a total that the likes of Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri nearly matched in one day.
On top of this, both drivers were stuck in the 1:38s when the fastest drivers were setting times in the 1.33s and clearly had plenty of pace in the bank if required.
Alonso was visibly furious in the Aston Martin garage, and considering the calibre of the people and organisations involved in building this year’s car, it’s easy to understand why he’s so upset.
Aston Martin are running out of time to salvage this season already, and Honda being responsible for seconds of lost time per lap is by far their biggest problem, even if Newey isn’t directly concentrating on the power unit issues.
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