Lawrence Stroll reacts to ‘very unexpected’ Aston Martin Honda woes

Aston Martin F1 team owner Lawrence Stroll has given his first reaction to a troubled start for the Aston Martin and Honda alliance.

Stroll admitted that these issues came as a “very unexpected” nasty surprise, with the Aston Martin chief wanting solutions as quickly as possible.

Lawrence Stroll on Aston Martin Honda woes: ‘Very unexpected’

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Aston Martin and Honda were plagued with reliability issues throughout pre-season testing. Vibrations from the Honda engine were pointed to as a primary factor.

Those troubles spilled over into the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

“I think Honda thinks the vibrations on the battery are really reduced since Bahrain with some of the modifications, but that didn’t happen to the chassis yet because they need to isolate the battery in a different way,” Alonso told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media in Melbourne.

Both Alonso and Lance Stroll missed an entire practice session, while Lance also failed to appear in qualifying, due to a suspected Internal Combustion Engine issue.

There was progress throughout the race weekend overall on a reliability front, with Alonso able to partake in Q1, and almost escape the elimination zone.

Alonso would be in and out of the Grand Prix before retiring to conserve parts. Lance also saw adjustments made to his AMR26, but did not reach the chequered flag.

Ahead of the race, Sky F1’s Martin Brundle, as part of his ‘grid walk’ segment, crossed paths with Lawrence Stroll, and asked the media-shy Aston Martin boss for his reaction to this shaky start for the Aston Martin and Honda partnership.

Brundle put it to Stroll that these are “tough times” for the Aston Martin team.

“Yes, it is,” Stroll responded in agreement. “Very unexpected.

“But, we’ll put our heads down and work our way through it.”

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Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey had said earlier in the race weekend that until a November visit to Honda, Aston Martin were not aware of the lack of F1 experience in this new engineering team, compared to Honda’s previous F1 engine squad which enjoyed immense success with Red Bull.

Newey also branded Aston Martin’s AMR26 the “fifth-best” chassis, and one with huge development potential – agreed upon by Alonso – further increasing the pressure on Honda.

Brundle’s opinion is that Aston Martin and Honda need “six months” to fix its problems. He therefore asked Lawrence for his timeline.

“I hope as soon as possible, is the answer,” he responded.

Additional reporting by Mat Coch

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