Lance Stroll offered a starkly sobering view of Aston Martin’s prospects after a grim start to pre-season testing in Bahrain by the Silverstone-based outfit.
On Wednesday, Stroll’s own best lap of 1m39.883s left him over five seconds adrift of session leader Lando Norris, a gap he acknowledged with little optimism, while Fernando Alonso was concluded his own stint on Thursday 3.975s adrift from pacesetter Charles Leclerc.
It’s early days still, but the numbers underline a start far below expectations for a team boasting a new Honda power unit, Adrian Newey at the helm, and substantial investment from billionaire owner Lawrence Stroll.
“Right now, we look like we're four seconds off the top team, four and a half seconds,” commented Stroll. “Impossible to know what fuel loads and everything people are running. But, yeah, now we need to try and find four seconds of performance.”
Despite the harsh reality, Stroll tried to frame some hope for the future, though his tone remained cautious.
“We have all the tools to fight for race wins and championships,” he said. “We're not doing that at the moment and we have to think about what we can do about it.
“Do we want to fight for race wins? Yes. Are we fighting for race wins today? It doesn't look like it. Does that mean we can’t fight for race wins in the future? No, I believe we can.”
Yet Stroll refused to sugarcoat the uncertainty surrounding the team’s progress.
“So, I don't have a crystal ball, I didn't have a crystal ball before the season started, and we are where we are here today. It doesn't look like it's amazing.
“Can that change in the next few weeks? Can it get a lot better? For sure. Will it 100% get way better? I don't know. I don't have the answers to those questions.
“All I can say is we're pushing as hard as we can. We're focused on bringing performance to the car, to the engine every single second of every single day and time will tell how competitive we look at the first race and throughout the whole season.”
Stroll pinpointed the sources of Aston Martin’s struggles as “a combination of things” – highlighting issues with the engine, balance, and grip.
When pressed for positives from a day filled with setbacks, the 27-year-old could only muster a dry quip: “The livery looks nice.”
Aston Martin team principal, Adrian Newey.
After missing much of the session due to a “data anomaly” in the new power unit, and completing just 36 laps – fewer than almost anyone on the grid – Aston Martin faces an uphill battle to close the yawning performance gap.
With rivals like Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren logging triple the mileage, Stroll’s downbeat assessment paints a picture of a team still scrambling to find its footing under a new era of F1 regulations.
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