Aston Martin's 2026 F1 car is finally on track, causes red flag

Aston Martin has finally taken to the track at Formula 1’s Barcelona pre-season test, but caused a red flag within just an hour.

The Silverstone-based team skipped the first three days of testing as it couldn’t produce its new challenger, the AMR26, on time.

The Barcelona shakedown is taking place behind closed doors over five days with each team entitled to three days’ running, which softened Aston’s setback.

Still, instead of three days, the team is getting just over one day – at best – as it took to the track around 5pm local time on Thursday, after reaching the circuit on Wednesday evening.

Shortly before the chequered flag was due to be waved at 6pm, the red flag put a definitive end to proceedings as Lance Stroll stopped at the pitlane entry, SoyMotor reports.

"We are in a bit of a unique situation," Mike Krack, Aston Martin's chief trackside officer, told F1 after the day's running.

"We welcome Honda, our new power unit partner. We have made our first gearbox in very many, many years, and you pair that with new chassis regulations, new power unit regulations... 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.

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin

Photo by: Aston Martin Racing

"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."

According to the Spanish publication, Stroll’s fastest time was a 1m46.404s, some 30 seconds slower than Mercedes’ benchmark. He completed just five laps.

The AMR26 is Aston’s first Adrian Newey-designed challenger, as well as the only Honda-powered machinery on the grid, meaning the Japanese manufacturer has been unable to collect any data so far.

Last week, Honda leaders displayed startling pessimism about their new F1 power unit. “The 2026 regulations are technically extremely challenging, and perhaps we will struggle,” said Koji Watanabe, president of Honda Racing Corporation.

Tetsushi Kakuda, Honda’s F1 project leader, told Motorsport.com: “The electrification side is progressing as planned. However, that is not necessarily the case for the internal combustion engine.”