Aston Martin, uphill start
In the Melbourne press conference, Aston Martin admitted the difficulties of the AMR26 project and the possibility of an early retirement in the inaugural GP. The “green” car designed by Adrian Newey has so far been hampered by an underpowered and problem-ridden Honda power unit, now a source of vibrations that knock out the batteries and are a risk for the drivers. To the point of suggesting that Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will retire before the halfway point of the race at Albert Park. The Spaniard, however, hopes to be able to fight for 58 laps.
Alonso’s words
“First of all, I hope to finish the race“, this was Alonso’s comment. “I think it’s true that in Bahrain and Barcelona we faced these abnormal vibrations coming from the engine, and I believe they have been understood. There were a couple of solutions on the test bench after Bahrain, and some of them were positive. We hope to have a better feeling in FP1, I am optimistic after last week’s changes: we can have a more normal weekend, this will be the first step to motivate all team members. If we unexpectedly manage to finish the race, it will be a good start“.
“It’s a definitely challenging start, more than we wanted. But there’s nothing we can do about it, we have to wait and have faith in Honda, hoping that all these problems will be solved in the short term. In the meantime, we must continue to experiment on the car and, hopefully, have fun“.
Read more Starts case: in Melbourne, 5 seconds of ‘pre-start’ will be provided to let the turbos rev up
“We must stay united and motivated. It’s hard to be when you’re not fighting for the top positions, but you always have a goal and a challenge to win. For us, at this moment, it’s simply about improving and refining the car, better understanding the problems we have. At the same time, because we had a very short winter and couldn’t manage all the programs we wanted, there are many setup indications and tests that we want to verify in these first races to understand the car and the new regulations“, Alonso concluded.
Read more Piastri to end the Australian ‘curse’. Coulthard believes.
