Brundle warns Aston Martin it will take ‘six months’ to fix problems
It has been a grim pre-season for Lawrence Stroll's Aston Martin.
Martin Brundle has warned Aston Martin and Honda it will take “six months” for them to overcome power unit issues that have plagued their start to the 2026 season.
While much of the talk before an opening race is on who may win it, the question surrounding Aston is just how many laps they can compete with serious issues present in the AMR26.
Aston Martin warned ‘six months’ needed to fix problems
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Team principal Adrian Newey has been pointing the finger firmly at Honda with Aston down to just two batteries for the weekend and questions over whether they will even be able to hit the 107% qualifying time needed to compete in the race.
But Sky pundit Brundle has warned Newey and the team that there is no quick fix to such massive problems and suggested it will take “six months” before any real change is seen.
“They’re between a rock and a hard place,” Brundle said pre-FP1. “They’re in a very difficult position. The car didn’t exactly look like it was stuck to the road when it ran in Bahrain testing.
“Clearly it doesn’t have reliability, doesn’t have speed and the big problem they have is they’re the only team running on their engine.
“Imagine how many kilometres Mercedes engine power unit teams did in testing. So they’re not learning anything about deployment, about starts, about pit stops and everything sort of falls away.
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“So they’ve got the resource, they’ve got the talent. They don’t have time.
“Ironically, what might help them a little bit is if Bahrain and Saudi Arabia can’t happen for what’s going on in the world at the moment, if that buys them some weeks, but I don’t think you will see that. It’ll take them six months to begin to really turn that around.”
Brundle was joined on the broadcast by Jenson Button who was a little more positive than his colleague although it is worth noting the 2009 World Champion’s recent appointment as an Aston Martin brand ambassador.
“Well, first of all, I think it is too early, definitely too early to call it a crisis,” Button said. “It’s just not been the best start for them.
“As Adrian said, they were on the back foot coming into this race anyway, or coming into the 2026 season.
“But they have everything to make this work. So it will work, it just takes time and you know, Fernando obviously had the tricky time with Honda when we were teammates back in 2015 but he’s also seen what they can achieve over time.
“Winning the world championship on many occasions. So it’s a bit about being patient, understanding your surroundings and understanding the leadership of this team, which is great with Lawrence [Stroll] and with Adrian.
“So I think it is going to happen. I think this team will be winning races is just the painful part that they’re going to go through.”
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