Lance Stroll admits Aston Martin have a lot of work to do ahead of 2026 season

[p]The AMR26 is the Silverstone-based team's first car under the technical guidance ‌of Adrian Newey, who joined from Red Bull ‌last March.[/p][p]The car has caught the attention of rivals ‌but was late to hit the track in last ‌month's Barcelona shakedown and has also lost time in Bahrain this week.[/p][p][b]“We’re still learning the car, the engine, but we ‌have a lot of work to do, ⁠and catching up to ‌do. We have probably 400 less laps than the competition, (from) ​Barcelona and everything that we missed," said [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/stroll-lance/I3p9zz4s/"]Stroll[/a].[/b][/p][p]The son of team owner Lawrence, Stroll said [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/aston-martin/p8iBWiuM/"]Aston ​Martin[/a] had to get to grips with "a combination of things: engine, balance, grip.[/p][p][b]"Right now, we look like we’re ⁠four seconds off ​the top teams, four-and-a-half seconds. Again, it's impossible to know what fuel loads and everything people are running. Now we need to try and find four seconds of ‌performance, so we’ll see.”[/b][/p][embed guid="2c133b3a-c734-4b8d-bb37-fbf0cd62bd5c" url="https://x.com/AstonMartinF1/status/2022052556810428828" social-type="twitter" /][p]Teammate [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/alonso-fernando/rVRhR90U/"]Fernando Alonso[/a] agreed that Aston Martin needed to unlock more performance.[/p][p][b]"We are a little bit on the back foot, we have to admit that, but hopefully there is time to improve," he said.[/b][/p][p][b]“On the chassis there is no doubt, we have the best with us. After 30-plus years of Adrian Newey dominating the sport, I think no one will ‌doubt that we will find a way to have ​the best car eventually.[/b][/p][p][b]“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.”[/b][/p][p]Aston Martin, seventh overall last season, are starting a new exclusive partnership with ⁠Honda after previously using ⁠Mercedes engines.[/p][p]The season starts ‌in Australia on March 8th.[/p]