(Motorsport-Total.com) – Honda has spoken out after the disastrous test week with the low point on the last test day in Bahrain and admitted problems with performance and reliability. Aston Martin experienced winter testing to forget because problems with the Honda power unit occurred repeatedly, meaning the team hardly got to drive.
Read more “No sabotage”: Oscar Piastri exposes Australian Parliament
The preliminary low point followed on Friday, when Lance Stroll was only able to complete six laps before Aston Martin finally packed its bags. Previously, there had already been a statement from Honda announcing that they would only run a limited program due to a lack of parts.
“Short runs” had been targeted, and ambassador Pedro de la Rosa had revealed that they would take a break of at least half an hour between each run to evaluate data – but it hardly came to that.
In the morning, Stroll had only rolled out of the garage shortly before the end of the session; in the afternoon, the news quickly followed that Aston Martin had “completed” its program.
The meager balance of Friday: six laps and no time on the clock.
Not satisfied with performance and reliability
Accordingly, Honda’s conclusion after the test drives is sobering: “Our main goal during the test week was to generate mileage with the power unit, check the reliability of the engine and collect data. The data collection was successful; however, we did not achieve the targeted total mileage,” admits chief engineer Shintaro Orihara, who is responsible for the trackside operations.
“On Thursday we identified a problem with the power unit, and on the last test day we focused all our efforts on finding a solution,” he says. The preliminary solution was then the limited running schedule. “This was decided jointly due to a lack of spare parts.”
“It was a grueling week, but we thank the team for the support at the track as well as everyone who worked remotely from Japan and Great Britain,” said Orihara. “Overall, we are currently not satisfied with our performance and reliability. However, we are working together in Sakura, Milton Keynes and Silverstone to find solutions.”
The debacle in numbers
How devastating the test drives were for Aston Martin can be seen from the numbers alone – and it’s not even about the last two places of Lance Stroll (+3.982 seconds) and Fernando Alonso (+4.544) in the timesheets, which put them well behind newcomer Cadillac.
The lost test kilometers weigh much more heavily. Aston Martin was able to drive 128 laps this week – that’s not even half as many as the second-to-last Cadillac (see overview). In total, they completed 334 laps in the two test weeks in Bahrain. For comparison: McLaren managed 817 in the same period.
Read more “Significant progress”: Audi with positive test conclusion
In addition, they also started late at the shakedown in Barcelona and were only able to complete two out of three possible days – with one day consisting of four laps for Lance Stroll.
The Canadian is probably the most battered driver of the winter test drives. After the four laps in Barcelona, he completed 108 laps in the first Bahrain week and just 32 in the second week. Other drivers managed the combined 144 laps in a single day.
“It’s been a challenging few weeks here in Bahrain, and the limited driving program today was not the way we wanted to end the second test,” the Canadian commented.
Stroll: “Challenging weeks”
“It’s obvious that the car is not yet where we would like it to be in terms of performance, and we know that there is a lot of work ahead of us in the coming weeks and months. We have a long season ahead of us, and we will continue to give everything to get more performance out of the package.”
“We’re not where we want to be at the moment, but I know how determined this team is. We will stick together, face the challenge and continue to work until we deliver the performance we are aiming for,” said Stroll.
Team Principal Mike Krack adds: “The biggest challenge was dealing with some reliability issues that limited our track time. This puts us in a difficult position for the start of the season as we were not able to complete all the usual tasks typical of winter testing.”
Aston Martin is aware “that a huge amount of work lies ahead of us, and everyone involved in this project knows exactly what we need to focus on to improve our situation,” said Krack.
Read more McLaren’s test review: Still no chance against Mercedes and Ferrari