Lance Stroll says the 2026 Aston Martin Formula 1 car looks up to four and a half seconds off the leading teams in Bahrain testing.
The design of the first Adrian Newey-designed Aston Martin
caught the eye when it eventually made its track debut in the 'shakedown week' test at Barcelona a fortnight ago.
But it began that test late, on the fourth day of five, with Stroll registering just four laps as he gave the AMR26 its track debut before grinding to a halt.
Stroll completed 36 laps on the first day of this week's first Bahrain test, although only three of those were added after the lunchbreak as a result of engine partner Honda - which it has been suggested is on the back foot compared to its rivals - detecting a data anomaly that it said required further analysis.
Team-mate Fernando Alonso did complete more than 50 laps in the car on Thursday morning but his best time was more than 4.6 seconds off Ferrari pacesetter Charles Leclerc's fastest lap of 1m34.273s.
Asked by The Race how much he thought Aston Martin could catch up by in the three weeks until the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Stroll said: "I don't know. I mean, right now we look like we're four seconds off the top teams, four and a half seconds.
"[It's] impossible to know what fuel loads and everything people are running, but, yeah, now we need to try and find four seconds of performance, so we'll see."
Alonso suggested at Aston Martin's launch event last week that it
could start the season "a bit behind its rivals" but that this would not define its year.
