Why Aston Martin's talking about a 2026 'long game' so early
Aston Martin has indicated it could start the 2026 Formula 1 season "a bit behind" its rivals, but insists a potentially slow start will not mean its hopes for the entire campaign are over.
Amid uncertainties about the potential of the new Honda-powered AMR26, which only joined the first pre-season test at Barcelona late on the fourth of five days, Fernando Alonso has talked openly about a need to play the "long game" this year.
So even if weaknesses emerge in its package over the two forthcoming Bahrain tests, the first of which starts this week, there remains scope in both car and engine development to make a strong recovery.
It is why Alonso has played down early expectations; he stressed that early headaches will not necessarily mean that the Aston Martin project has failed in its ambitions to move forward in F1, as the true judgement for that can only come later in the year.
'Long-game' thinking
Aston Martin became the final team to reveal its 2026 livery in Saudi Arabia on Monday night.
Having been late to testing, the team is short of the same level of understanding of both its chassis and power unit as its rivals, especially as there have been suggestions that engine supplier Honda could be on the back foot.
But while he did not rule out a challenging start to the year, Alonso said on Monday that the mindset was not one that meant it was make or break for Aston Martin to hit the ground running for the start of the season in Australia in early March.
Instead, he suggested it was important to consider the amount of progress that can be made over the season.
"The unique thing this year is that the rate of development is going to be very, very high for everyone, because of the new regulations and the complexity of the power units as well," he said.
"So I'm not really too concerned about Bahrain or the first couple of races, because the championship and having a good or bad season is going to play a little bit more in the second half of the season than in the first half of the season.
"For us it's important, finishing Bahrain [testing] with a good understanding of the car.
"And then from that point, think more in race seven or 10 or 12 or whatever, and have a clear path of development."
Designer Adrian Newey, who has also taken over as team principal, echoed Alonso's view that the rate of development would likely be intense this season.
"I'd imagine that for many teams, including to an extent ourselves, the car that they ran the Barcelona pre-season with will be a fair bit different to the car they actually race in Melbourne," he said.
"And that pace, I'm sure, will continue through the season."
The uncertainties about the AMR26 are matched by questions over where Honda stands. Alonso said that the constant-speed running he was doing on the straights at Barcelona meant the team has no clue yet where its power unit lies against the competition.
"Obviously we don't have much information," he said, when asked by The Race about what feedback he had from Honda on its progress.
"As I said in Barcelona, even with the limitation that we had on the straights with the constant speed and things like that, as it was a shakedown for us, we didn't have a clear picture of our power differences and things like that.
"I only know the information that you know, the messages that they were saying that they were a bit behind.
"This is, as I said, a long game and I'm sure even if we start a bit behind, there is plenty of time to catch up.
"The second part of the season is going to be more important than the first part, in my opinion."
Crunch week looming
While other teams were racking up the miles from the start of the Barcelona test, Aston Martin was in a race against time to even get out on track.
It only got its AMR26 into action at the end of the penultimate day of running after it elected to push manufacturing of the new challenger to the final minute.
That late arrival has left the team lacking miles compared to most of its competitors, which means it needs a smooth week in Bahrain.
For Alonso, who drove on the final day at Barcelona, the lack of performance running there meant there was no way to draw any conclusions about the car.
"It was really the first kilometres on the car, and we were not pushing the limits either," he said about the Barcelona test.
"We had to run a constant speed on the straights. There are different factors that were difficult for us to have an estimation, and we didn't really pay too much attention to that.
"We found things to improve from Barcelona to Bahrain. Some things are just pure comfort things, in the driving cockpit, seat, feet and things like that.
"There's more things that we need to investigate deeper or improve the cooling or improve the vibrations, whatever the things that are very normal for the first day of testing."
Alonso acknowledged though that the Bahrain tests would give the team a clear idea of what sort of state it was going to start the year in.
"I think by the end of Bahrain we will know where we are," he said.
"Yes, I think we have plenty of days and plenty of data and laps to really understand some of the strengths and for sure some of the weaknesses of the car.
"I think we will have more or less a picture of the first, let's say, three to five races of the championship."