Stroll addresses Aston Martin’s engine challenges

“Some seasons you get in the car and it’s magic, and some seasons you get in the car and it’s sh*t, and you just have to go with it,” Jewish Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll told journalists at Melbourne’s Albert Park on Thursday.

Stroll, now beginning his tenth season on the grid, managed a respectable sixth place at last year’s Australian Grand Prix. But this year, major issues with his team Aston Martin’s new Honda engine and resulting severe vibration through the car mean neither Stroll nor his teammate Fernando Alonso will actually be able to complete Sunday’s race.

Stroll, who is the son of team owner Lawrence Stroll, seemed to take it all in his stride on Thursday. “That level of vibration, it’s not good for the engine, It’s not good for anything in the car, human included,” Stroll said matter-of-factly.

“There was some work done the last couple of weeks since [testing in] Bahrain to try and fix it, and if that’s better, then we should be in a better position this weekend, if not, it’s going to be yeah, difficult to complete laps.”

Stroll managed just three laps in his problematic Aston Martin during Free Practice 1 on Friday afternoon, with a time more than 30 seconds slower than any other driver. Teammate Alonso did not practice due to a power unit issue.

2026 was meant to be a bold, new dawn for Aston Martin after the team brought legendary designer Adrian Newey on board to design their first car in the new regulations era as well as partnering with Honda – a combination that saw plenty of success across the paddock at Red Bull in recent years.

“I have full belief in Adrian. He’s done this once or twice before. I have full belief in us as a team, Honda included,” Stroll said on Thursday. “I think, you know, we started in a really difficult position in Bahrain. We’re not where we want to be, that’s no secret. But all we can do now is put our head down and fix the problems we have.”

He acknowledged things will not change overnight. “But do I have full belief that we can be a really competitive team at some point, if that’s next weekend in China, or halfway through the season in Hungary, or at the end of the season in Abu Dhabi …  I know that we have all the pieces to do that,” he said. “Right now, times are tough. But like I said, I believe the future is very bright.”

Asked about his teammate Alonso’s impact, having brought 25 years of experience to the team, Stroll replied, “He’s very passionate about it. I think everyone knows when Fernando’s not happy with the car. It’s not a secret. He’s been in this situation before, and yeah, he’s very committed, motivated and passionate.”

Speaking before Stroll, Alonso said he had “one hundred per cent faith” that Honda would fix the power unit issues. “They did it already in the past, and they will always be competitive and a top engine in Formula One,” Alonso said. “We have some challenges to start this year, no doubt, you know we are not hiding that … but I’m ready for them.

“So I will embrace them, and I will try to help with my experience as well within Formula One for Honda to make this time as short as possible.”

Alonso said he was confident Aston Martin will win a constructors’ championship, saying it was “a matter of time”.

“We have all the things in place now, and we are facing another difficulty and challenge now with the new regulations and the engine swap,” he said. “But, you know, everything can be fixed … I think I will win a championship with this team sooner or later.”

At a press conference after the first practice session on Friday, Newey addressed some of the issues with Aston Martin’s car.

“We tried a different solution on Lance’s car today. There’s some analysis going on as we speak as to whether that’s helped or not, and then, depending on that analysis, will define what we do for FP2 [Free Practice 2],” he said.

Asked what the team was hoping to achieve for the remainder of the weekend, Newey was frank about the limitations.

“I think realistically it’s just trying to manage the problem. We are short on batteries. We’ve only got two batteries left — the two that are in the car. So we lose one of those, then it’s obviously a big problem, so we’ve got to be very careful on how we use the batteries,” he said.

The legendary designer, who has won 12 constructors’ championships across his career, admitted this was one of the most challenging moments he’d experienced.

“I think it’s one where I kind of feel a bit powerless, because clearly we’ve got a very significant power unit problem, and our lack of running then also means, at the same time, we’re not finding out about the car,” Newey said.

“So our information on the car itself is very limited because we’ve done so little running, and particularly at low fuel, because fuel acts as a damper to the battery.”

Newey said the situation was taking an enormous toll on the entire team.

“It’s using a lot of energy in the human sense, as opposed to the kilowatt sense, on our part to try to work with Honda and to produce the best overall solution,” he said.

“At the moment, I think there’s a very clear action on Honda to try to reduce the vibration that is emanating from the power unit. They are working on that. It’s not going to be a quick fix because it involves fundamental balancing and damping projects that they will need to conduct.”

He noted the vibration issue was consuming all the team’s resources and energy.

“Our mechanics were up until four o’clock this morning. Of course, they’re on their knees. The factory has been offering lots of support. So it’s something you really need to try to get on top of as quickly as possible,” Newey said.

Despite the difficulties, Newey said the team had tried to manage expectations coming into the season.

“We were trying to contain our hopes, because we knew this was going to be a difficult year, a build year. We knew that certainly the first part of the season, we were likely to be a bit behind, but hopefully with the potential, which I still believe we have on the chassis side, to catch back up,” he said.