Aston Martin’s early finish hides deeper problems as Collins warns tough season ahead

Aston Martin may finally have seen the chequered flag, but Bernie Collins has warned their real fight is only just beginning.

The Aston Martin-Honda-Adrian Newey alliance has been anything but the fairytale story that many pundits and fans predicted so far in 2026, sitting bottom of the early Constructors’ standings.

Bernie Collins warns Aston Martin face long season

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It was evident that there was a big problem from the get-go with Aston Martin late to the track during the pre-season shakedown. Only arriving on day four of five, Lance Stroll completed just a handful of laps.

That was just the beginning of the team’s pre-season issues with vibration hurting the car to the point that it was shaking off bits of bodywork, such as the mirrors, while the drivers’ bodies were taking a hammering.

Team principal Newey revealed in Australia to the media, including PlanetF1.com, that the vibrations were so severe they could cause long-term nerve damage to the drivers. As such Aston Martin would limit Fernando Alonso and Stroll’s running.

The team, though, didn’t really have to as reliability issues, mainly related to the battery or hydraulics, sent them back into the pits. Alonso retired in China when the vibrations became too uncomfortable.

But two weeks later in Japan, he completed a first grand prix at the Aston Martin/Honda partnership when he brought the AMR26 home in 18th place, ahead of Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and the Williams of Alex Albon.

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It was a positive outcome for the team, but it does not mean the battle has been won. Or even will be won soon.

“I think it’s going to be pretty slow, to be honest,” former Aston Martin strategist Bernie Collins told Sky Sports. “Because I think anything engine, gearbox-related is a long lead time item.

“They’re beginning to understand the issues.

“Each week, they’re trying slightly different things in order to try and help the vibrations, which we think is the biggest problem coming from the engine.

“But if it’s a fundamental design buried within the engine, it’s very difficult to change quickly, and yes, they’re going to be allowed a bit more development time in terms of that engine, but my understanding is it’s not going to be quick changes.

“So, the first point is to learn and understand, and then it’s to try and get a new engine, but I think they could be in for a pretty rough year for the entire season.”

Honda did bring a “ball”, Honda’s Chief engineer Shintaro Orihara called it, to resolve the vibration issues, with the team running that on Friday. While the solution appeared to work, it was removed due to reliability issues.

Such have been Aston Martin’s troubles with Honda, team boss Newey said he felt “powerless” in the face of it. “I think there’s very clear action on Honda to try to reduce the vibration. This is emanating from the PU,” he insisted.

However, former F1 driver Karun Chandhok has warned that playing the blame game doesn’t help anyone.

“They’ve got a good plough on, haven’t they? What are they gonna do?” the Sky F1 analyst asked in Japan.

“They can’t change engines. They can’t just magically turn back time. They’re in it now. They’ve got to just try and work in a collaborative way.

“They’ve got to try to avoid the finger-pointing, I think. They’ve got to find a way to harmoniously come out of this situation they find themselves in. And it’s not easy.

“I feel a lot of sympathy for Lawrence Stroll. He’s somebody who’s invested a lot of money into this project. They’ve built an incredible factory, new wind tunnel. They’ve gone down this path, they’re committed to a new gearbox, and the whole thing was geared around new regulations, moving them from being midfield to a top five team. And it’s not happened.

“So a sense of frustration, but now you’re in it, you’ve just got to try and just plough on and make it work.”

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