Aston Martin feel ‘powerless’ as battery problem risks Australian Grand Prix participation

MELBOURNE – Aston Martin’s hopes of racing in the

Formula One season-opening Australian Grand Prix

rest on their final batteries holding up until the race on March 8, leaving them feeling “powerless” and in a “scary place”, team principal Adrian Newey said on March 6.

The team have been plagued by problems with their Honda power unit, with drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll having their laps restricted due to the risk of suffering permanent nerve damage from vibrations in the car.

Alonso was unable to leave the garage in the first free practice on March 6, while Stroll managed only three laps.

The duo combined for just 31 laps in the second free practice session later in the day.

Newey said the team brought four batteries to Melbourne but two had already failed, leaving them with the ones being used in the drivers’ cars.

“So we lose one of those, then it’s obviously a big problem,” he said. “So we’ve got to be very careful on how we use the batteries. Given our kind of rate of battery damage, it’s quite a scary place to be in.”

Aston Martin also suffered a battery problem on the final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain in February, which compounded the team’s critical shortage of laps and data before the season opener in Melbourne.

Powered by Mercedes in 2025, they finished seventh in the constructors’ championship.

Honda withdrew from F1 in 2021 after providing a competitive power unit for Red Bull which helped Max Verstappen win the drivers’ championship, but confirmed in 2023 that they would return with Aston Martin in 2026.

However, the new partnership raised concerns from the get-go.

Newey pinned the power unit problems on a lack of experience, pointing out that just 30 per cent of Honda’s original team remained in place for the Aston Martin project.

He added that his team became aware of the staff problems only in November.

The 67-year-old said the reliability issues were affecting his whole team, noting that Aston Martin’s mechanics had been up until 4am on March 6 working on solutions.

“I kind of feel a bit powerless, because clearly we’ve got a very significant PU (power unit) problem, and our lack of running then also means, at the same time, we’re not finding out about the car,” he said.

Meanwhile, the practice sessions on March 6 were the first proper tests of the far-reaching new engine and chassis rules, with the hybrid power units now powered by 50 per cent traditional combustion and 50 per cent electrical energy.

With a finite amount of energy available, drivers had to carefully manage their batteries on each lap, working out when to deploy them while building battery levels back up through braking.

The challenge of the Albert Park Circuit is its long sweeping straights, which deplete batteries, and relatively few twisty turns to brake and recharge.

There have also been changes to the aerodynamics of the cars, which are lighter and smaller.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri delighted home fans by finishing in first place in the second free practice.

He lapped in 1min 19.729sec, 0.214 seconds ahead of Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli, whose teammate George Russell came in third. Ferrari duo Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were fourth and fifth respectively.

“If you can operate the car roughly how you expect it to, then you find a huge amount of lap time,” said Piastri.

“I think we have been there or thereabouts, don’t think we ever thought we were a long way behind Mercedes and Ferrari. Maybe we don’t have the outright performance if everyone’s at 100 per cent but the biggest thing is how close you can get to 100 per cent at the moment.”

Not all is rosy, however.

F1’s new engine era launched with trepidation and a spate of reliability issues, with the virtual safety car triggered twice in the opening practice session.

The mishaps continued in the second session, with Verstappen stalling in the pit lane straight after exiting the Red Bull garage and later taking a heavy skid through gravel after locking up at turn 10.

The four-time champion and 2025 runner-up sat out nearly half the session – close to 30 minutes in the garage – with his car apparently stuck in gear, before returning to post the sixth-fastest time.

Piastri’s teammate and defending champion Lando Norris improved to seventh in the second session after finishing 19th in the first, in which he encountered a gearbox problem.

Pre-season favourite Russell locked up at turn 3 and slid into gravel midway through the second free practice. He also needed a minor fix at the start of the session after colliding with Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad.

New team Cadillac had an underwhelming start, with Sergio Perez 20th-quickest in the opening session and missing most of the second due to a sensor issue.

Questions remain over how F1‘s new engine regime will stand up in race conditions.

Early signs are that the cars are slower, with Piastri’s best lap in the second practice session coming more than three seconds shy of Leclerc’s corresponding time at Albert Park in 2025. REUTERS, AFP