Fernando Alonso hopes Aston Martin can 'unlock seconds' before Melbourne

Aston's start to 2026 has been less than ideal - after just making it to the Barcelona shakedown, the team struggled for reliability at Bahrain Test 1, limiting them to just 206 laps across the three days, less than Williams, who missed Barcelona altogether.

Despite bringing an Adrian Newey-designed, Honda-powered AMR26 to Bahrain, the British team failed to set the timing sheets alike, with Stroll and Alonso's best lap times putting them P21 and P22 respectively overall.

The lack of performance and reliability led Alonso to conclude his team were clearly "on the back foot."

Nevertheless, the two-time world champion was hopeful that Aston Martin can shave seconds of that time at the Bahrain Test 2, explaining that he was able to find eight tenths despite making a mistake on one particular lap when asked whether he agreed with Stroll's assessment.

Alonso said to media, including GPblog: "I think Lance said that because in Barcelona we were 4.5 and in the first two days we were like 4.5 or 5. So it seems like a trend in the last three days.

"But I don't know, I did a lap yesterday that I went off in Turn 4 and then from that point to the finish line I improved eight tenths. So it's just to give you the number of errors that there are in every lap we are doing now.

"There are laps that we are eight tenths up and down by changing one setting. So it's not that we need to find two tenths when we optimise. Maybe we unlock seconds when we optimise everything. So let's hope next week we have a better picture."

Despite the problems at Aston Martin, Alonso also made sure to support new team principal Adrian Newey, whose aerodynamic package is the least of the Spaniard's concerns.

"On the power units, it's a little bit more difficult because we don't have the good understanding yet on the regulations and what is needed, but on the chassis side, there is no question mark on that.

"After 30 plus years of Adrian dominating the sport, it's not that he will forget everything in one year. I don't know where we are now in terms of chassis and grip level, but even if we are not at 100 now, we will be at 100 soon because we will fix any problem on the power unit."

Despite some optimism that Aston Martin will get it right eventually, Alonso was less happy about the new F1 2026 rules, even claiming the chef could drive the new, slower generation of cars around Bahrain.