(Motorsport-Total.com) – Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll put his full frustration over the sporting situation in the team on display after qualifying for the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai (follow all sessions here in the Formula 1 live ticker!): The answers in his media round consisted of only eight words. This is how the “conversation” went:
Read more Formula 1 live ticker: Antonelli beats Russell in qualifying
Question: “Has anything changed compared to Melbourne?
Lance Stroll: “No.”
Question: “Doesn’t it at least get better by you driving more laps?”
Stroll: “No.”
Question: “In the race?”
Stroll: “No.”
Question: “Okay. Is there anything positive?”
Stroll: “Not so much at the moment, no.”
In any case, the qualifying result offered little reason for confidence: Stroll remained in 21st place in Q1, 2,820 seconds behind the fastest time, even trailing Valtteri Bottas in the Cadillac and only ahead of his teammate Sergio Perez. In addition to Stroll, Fernando Alonso also exited in the first qualifying segment in 19th place.
Both drivers at least commented on their performance in a few sentences in the Aston Martin press release. Stroll spoke of a “challenging qualifying” and stated that he had struggled with balance, understeer, and locking rear wheels. “That made the car unpredictable.”
Read more Start chaos in Melbourne: F1 politics blocks a quick solution
Alonso believes: No more is possible for Aston Martin at the moment
Alonso said: “I have the impression I got everything out of the car. There was nothing more in it.” To advance to the second qualifying segment, he was missing about 1.1 seconds and over four-tenths of a second to the next best vehicle ahead of him.
“We are simply lacking performance,” Alonso explained to DAZN. “We had three sets of tires and thus three opportunities to optimize our lap in individual sections. No more was possible. Now it’s about getting through the Grand Prix for us. It would be good to see the finish line for the first time. That worked in the sprint, so let’s see if we can get one or both cars through on Sunday.”
At least Honda chief engineer Shintaro Orihara seems confident: “The finish in the sprint shows that we are moving in the right direction. This speaks for the increased reliability of Honda and strengthens our self-confidence. We are seeing good progress and continue to work hard to improve reliability.”
“Now we want to complete the full Grand Prix distance. Because every single lap is important for Honda and Aston Martin. We want to confirm that our measures are working.”
Read more The qualifying, sprint and race duels of the 2026 Formula 1 season