Honda PU problems force Aston Martin to end Bahrain test early

Power unit issues for Honda limited Aston Martin to just six laps on the final day of Formula 1 pre-season testing as the team ended its track running early.

Fernando Alonso stopped on track midway through a race simulation on Thursday, and did not return to the circuit after that problem. Honda released a statement before Friday’s running stating that the issue was related to the battery and would be a significant limitation on the final day.

“Our last run with Fernando Alonso yesterday showed a battery-related issue that impacted our test plan with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team,” the Honda statement read. “Since then, we have been carrying out simulations on the test bench in HRC [Honda Racing Corporation] Sakura. Due to this and the shortage of power unit parts, we have adapted today’s run plan to be very limited and consist only of short stints.”

Those short stints added up to just six laps in total for Lance Stroll on Friday before Aston Martin confirmed it had completed its program and would not be completing any further pre-season running.

The team missed the first three days of the Barcelona shakedown and only completed a handful of laps on the penultimate day before its first significant running, but was then also restricted to 206 laps in total during the first week of testing in Bahrain.

While there was increased pace shown at times in the second week, the mileage was even more severely hit, with a total of 128 laps completed over the past three days. To put Aston Martin’s overall 334 laps across six days of Bahrain testing into context, six of the 11 teams exceeded that amount during last week’s test alone, and nine of them averaged over 100 laps per day.

Speaking before his stoppage on Thursday, Alonso had suggested Aston Martin did not yet know how competitive the Honda power unit could be, given the reliability issues.

“We need to unlock more performance,” Alonso said. “Missing Barcelona was not ideal. This is the very first test for us, so we’re still going step by step into the car. We are a little bit on the back foot, we have to admit that, but hopefully there is time to improve.

“On the chassis there is no doubt, we have the best with us. After 30-plus years of [designer] Adrian Newey dominating the sport, I think no one will doubt that we will find a way to have the best car eventually. On the power unit, we need to wait and see, when we unlock all the performance, where we are and what is missing, and then work hard.”