Aston Martin focusing on Honda integration as AMR26 finally breaks cover

Aston Martin hopes to work on integrating its new Honda power unit during the final day of Formula 1's shakedown in Barcelona, after finally hitting the track with the AMR26 on Thursday.

Teams can only run on three of the five days in Spain this week, and nine of the 11 teams completed their first day of running by the end of Wednesday, giving them enough scope to fit the maximum track time in. Aston Martin, however, was late arriving and only got out late on the penultimate day – with Lance Stroll completing five laps before he stopped on track – but trackside engineering director Mike Krack says the task the team faced should not be underestimated.

“We obviously are in a bit of a unique situation,” Krack said. “We welcome Honda, our new power unit partner. We have made our first gearbox in many, many years, and you pair that with new chassis regulations, new power unit regulations, so basically you could say it's the worst case or the best case but it's a huge change for us as a team – to be a works team, a factory team – together with these regulations.

“Then we have Adrian [Newey] on board, so it's all very exciting and a lot of change. And then Formula 1 is not waiting for you, so you have to be ready. We were now a little bit late, but we made it to this test, so I think we can be proud and happy of that achievement.”

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The new AMR26 is the first car designed by Newey for Aston Martin and featured some striking bodywork around the sidepods and engine cover, as it ran in all-black for its first appearance. It is also the first car to use a Honda power unit as part of a new partnership, and Krack says working with the Japanese manufacturer will be an important undertaking on the final day’s running.

“It's still fresh, obviously, and also when you have such a long relationship with the previous partner, you need to know the people, you need to learn the names, how you work with each other, what are your expectations, what are the responsibilities, and all these kind of things," he said.

“But it was a good start, a few smiles between ourselves and them, and it's our goal, obviously, to use this time now to integrate as much as we can, to learn how to work together. But I'm very confident. They are racers – they are very open, you can challenge them – it's really nice and I'm looking forward to continuing that relationship.

“We need to get going [on Friday]. This was basically installing today, shaking it down. I mean, we are in shakedown week, we must not forget, and it's now about accumulating laps, accumulating runs, learn how to work with each other, integrate Honda and make the maximum out of the day. The weather will be good, we have a lot of tires, so we are looking forward to it.”