Aston Martin’s AMR26 has been the talk of the grid since the news broke that legendary Adrian Newey is joining the team. Yet the Bahrain test has shone a light on issues that may hinder the team’s progress in the early part of 2026.
A new era begins for the legends of the sport
After it was announced that Newey was joining Aston Martin, optimism was high for the 67 year old’s debut car.
Apart from the Newey-designed car, 2026 also marks the first year of Aston Martin using a Honda engine.
Newey arrived at the Silverstone based team off the back of a historic campaign with Red Bull.
The designer boasts championship winning cars that he has designed and led to season-long dominance.
But amid turmoil at Red Bull the designer jumped ships to the growing Aston Martin team, under the ownership of Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll.
A testing start
Doubts began to filter out from the Silverstone base ahead of the Barcelona shakedown.
Having missed the first two days of testing the team arrived in Barcelona for the third day with an all-black livery ahead of Newey’s debut.
But when Lance Stroll pulled off to the side of the track with a smoking engine, rumours began to float about as to if the team were as strong as first hoped.
At the end of the test the AMR26 could only manage 65 laps.
For a team aiming for a smooth test to get the car ready for the season hopes were squashed.
The aggressive suspension design and intriguing sidepod design that had once provoked so much hope for the team suddenly appeared irrelevant in the face of reliability issues.
Power unit anomalies
Just like during the Barcelona Shakedown, AMR26’s first run during testing was cut short.
Lance Stroll, who was meant to drive the AMR26 during both sessions on the first day, only managed 36 laps during which the Canadian struggled with braking and lockups.
Eventually, the 27 year old was forced to return to the pits due to engine issues.
The issue was detected by the team, who identified the anomaly with the data from the power unit, and the team spent an afternoon investigating and fixing, ready for Day 2 and Fernando Alonso.
However, would this issue have surfaced during the Shakedown had AMR26 been able to have more track time?
Playing catch-up at the early stages of the season
During the unveiling of the official 2026 livery, Newey admitted that delays in getting the new car into the tunnel were bound to impact them at least during the early stages of the season.
Whether he was downplaying the expectations or being realistic, everyone is having their eyes on the AMR26 and seeing how it compares with the rest of the grid.
Following the Barcelona test, Mercedes’ George Russell claimed the AMR26 was “pretty spectacular” as Newey claimed the team was “making strides” amid the delays to the programme.
Despite the limited run, Lance managed to set a lap time of 1:39.883s and achieve P17 during Day1 of Bahrain 1 Pre-season testing.
Alonso will take to the track tomorrow where the team will be hoping to improve on what has been a stop-start opening to the team’s 2026 campaign.
Feature image courtesy of Formula 1
Further reporting courtesy of Annika Rosler