Honda has confirmed that complications on Thursday will limit Aston Martin to only short stints on the final day of Formula 1 pre-season testing in Bahrain.
The Japanese marque‘s return to F1 with the Silverstone-based squad has come with problems across the latter development stages.
Various growing pains have seen the brand’s new power unit – exclusive to Aston – rendered to limited running, with Lance Stroll putting a number of 400 on the amount of laps it has done less, in comparison to its rivals.
The Canadian also warned that four seconds’ worth of performance would also need to be found.
Fernando Alonso completed 68 tours of the Bahrain International Circuit on Thursday, his best time – a 1:37.472s – being 4.6s slower than the fastest time of the day, set by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.
Honda has today [February 20] confirmed that a significant gremlin with the PU, amongst other anomalies, has truncated the team’s plan for what is the final day of running.
“Our last run with Fernando Alonso yesterday showed a battery-related issue that impacted our test plan with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team,” a Honda statement read.
“Since then, we have been carrying out simulations on the test bench in HRC Sakura.
“Due to this and a shortage of power unit parts, we have adapted today’s run plan to be very limited and consist only of short stints.”
It appeared that there was some confusion amongst many outsiders in the paddock that Aston’s Chief Strategy Officer, Andy Cowell has not been present in Bahrain to help oversee the resolution of its PU issues with Honda.
But Motorsport Week understands that Cowell is visiting Japan regularly in his role, and is aiding the ongoing work to be more race-ready for the opening round in Melbourne.
READ MORE – Ferrari stirs excitement with car experiment in Bahrain F1 test
Discussion about this post