Adrian Newey’s aggressive Aston Martin F1 automobile was restricted to restricted mileage on the primary day of Bahrain 2026 testing because of an engine “information anomaly”.
Aston Martin turned heads when the workforce’s aggressive AMR26 took to the monitor at Shakedown in Barcelona late final month.
The AMR26 is the primary automobile Aston Martin workforce principal Adrian Newey has designed for the workforce since becoming a member of from Purple Bull initially of final season.
He admitted forward of pre-season testing in Bahrain that Aston Martin was a number of months behind rivals in growing the brand new automobile as a result of its wind tunnel was not operational till April final yr.
Complicating Aston Martin’s pre-season is the truth that it’s growing an aggressive new automobile, working on Honda engines for the primary time, after beforehand utilizing Mercedes energy models.
Lance Stroll restricted to fewer than 40 laps on first day of Bahrain testing
On the primary day of Bahrain testing, Lance Stroll was tasked with placing the AMR26 by means of its paces.
Nevertheless, the Canadian was solely in a position to full 36 laps in whole because of an issue found together with his Honda’s energy unit.
Aston Martin confirmed that an “anomaly” had been detected within the energy unit, which required an investigation, and Stroll was sidelined for a while within the afternoon.
“The Aston Martin Aramco F1 Staff at present started its Bahrain check program on the Bahrain Worldwide Circuit with Lance Stroll returning to the cockpit of the AMR26,” the assertion learn.
“Lance hit the monitor within the morning and accomplished 36 laps all through the day.
“The Honda workforce detected an information anomaly within the energy unit within the afternoon, which required additional evaluation and resulted in Lance’s working being restricted.
“That is the primary time the AMR26 might be on monitor for the reason that 2026 livery was unveiled on Monday at Isla, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
“Lance will return to the AMR26 on Friday, whereas Fernando Alonso might be on monitor tomorrow for his first run in Bahrain.”
After working on a restricted course, Stroll was second to final with a time of 1 minute 39.883 seconds, forward of pacesetter McLaren’s Lando Norris with a time of 1 minute 34.669 seconds.
Alpine’s Franco Colapinto was the one one slower than Stroll, however the Argentine stopped on monitor within the morning session and introduced out one of many two purple flags seen on Wednesday.
