Canadian Formula One driver Lance Stroll hopes that his Adrian Newey-designed Aston Martin will immediately challenge for podiums and wins in 2026, but cautioned the team’s supporters to be patient in the early going of the season.
While technical guru Newey’s reputation means that fans will expect a giant rabbit being pulled from his hat in the Australia season opener next month, Stroll insisted that work still needs to be done for the team to hit its stride, due to several factors. These factors point to the car likely not being where the team wants it to be when the first race in Melbourne rolls around on March 8.
“Challenging for podiums at the beginning of the season in Australia would be amazing, but do I think it’s realistic? No,” Stroll said in a press conference with selected Canadian media.
“Adrian started six months ago, we’re making our gearbox for the first time, Honda developed the engine a year later than a lot of the manufacturers because they pulled out for a bit so there’s still a learning curve that’s necessary, and I don’t think we’re going to show up in the first part of the season and be where we want to be — maybe I’m completely wrong and we’re all pleasantly surprised. I see it as the first half of the season where we’re getting better, and then second half of the season to fight further up.
“The important thing is that we have a foundation to build on.”
Newey joined Aston Martin in mid-2025 after a long stint with Red Bull Racing that saw him design cars that won eight drivers championships to add to the six he collected with Williams and two more with McLaren. His designs also won 12 constructors titles over the years.
Although Newey’s 2026 challenger attracted praise for its interpretation of the new regulations, it also arrived late to the first shakedown test in Barcelona last month and ran in an all-black paint scheme rather than its usual green.
“We pushed everything to the last minute — we barely showed up to Barcelona — but it was all for performance reasons,” said Stroll, who keeps two-time world champion Fernando Alonso as his teammate for 2026. “There’s still a lot of new aspects to this project that we need to acknowledge, and that’s going to take a little bit of time. I believe the future is very bright and it will really bring a lot of performance to this car every week, throughout the season, absolutely. So yeah, I’m just looking forward to the next 24 races.”
Testing for the 2026 season resumed on Feb. 11 for three days at the Bahrain International Circuit, with a second three-day session at the same venue starting on Feb. 18.
Although he acknowledged that Aston Martin might face some adversity in the early going, Stroll suggested that his team would not be alone in needing to make adjustments in testing and as the season progresses.
“It’s going to be a challenge for all the teams, just coming to the first race with the new set of regulations,” he said. “I’m just excited to get the wheels turning, spend time with Adrian at the track, have that relationship grow. And also just see what these new cars, you know, how they are to drive, and what these new regulations have to offer.”
On the other hand, Stroll did express some disappointment with the last decade of F1, where managing things in-race took a backseat to sheer speed.
“It’s been years of fuel management and tire management, where you’re just not pushing flat-out and, even with the tires we have now, even a lot of qualifying laps in certain conditions, you’re not pushing flat-out,” he said.
“I would love to be in an era of F1 where we saw races in the past with re-fueling, with light cars, with good tires, always pushing flat-out, but unfortunately, we’re not there today. I’ve been saying it for a long time: I think it would be nice to have normally aspirated engines with synthetic fuels, but I don’t make the rules, I just drive the cars.”
And when those cars arrive in Melbourne to fight on track for glory for the first time in 2026, Stroll predicted that the season opener on March 8 will go to “George [Russell of Mercedes] maybe winning the race in Australia by 30 seconds.”