Holding off on upgrades until a transformative package is complete, Aston Martin is no longer operating at \u201cF1 standards\u201d and this is \u201cnot acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is the brutal opinion expressed by former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner, following a fresh blow for Aston Martin<\/a> at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. Aston Martin fielded the slowest package, while neither Fernando Alonso nor Lance Stroll made the chequered flag.<\/p>\n Aston Martin \u2018not F1 standards\u2019 in Guenther Steiner claim<\/p>\n Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for news you can trust.<\/p>\n Aston Martin got off the mark in Monaco by virtue of Alonso\u2019s P10, but there were to be no such joys for the Silverstone squad in Barcelona.<\/p>\n Aston Martin comfortably locked out the back row, a second slower than the Cadillacs, while Stroll and Alonso retired from the race. It was a second double DNF of the season for Aston Martin.<\/p>\n Speaking on the Red Flags podcast, Steiner, who served as Haas team principal between 2016-2023, issued a typically blunt take on Aston Martin\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n \u201cAston Martin makes even Cadillac look good, you know, and Cadillac was down three laps at the end of a race, but it made Cadillac look good,\u201d Steiner claimed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat Aston Martin is doing now is just, in my opinion, not acceptable.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not F1 standards anymore. It\u2019s like having the local guy there, you\u2019re dead last, but by a mile, and then you don\u2019t finish the race as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Aston Martin deserves time to validate its strategy<\/p>\n While F1 2026 is not playing out anything like how Aston Martin and Honda had hoped for in the first year of this alliance, there is a clear mitigating circumstance behind the current plight of the AMR26.<\/p>\n Clearly not where the team wants to be, Adrian Newey, the Aston Martin team principal and design chief, made the call to snub smaller performance upgrades, in favour of a major package to be introduced down the line.<\/p>\n Aston Martin\u2019s chief trackside officer Mike Krack reiterated the team\u2019s faith in Newey and that tactic after Barcelona, even if team morale is being severely tested.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s weighing on everyone,\u201d he said of Aston Martin\u2019s situation when speaking with PlanetF1.com and others.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can feel it. You can feel it in the garage. You can feel it especially with the drivers. We discussed it already before. It\u2019s a very difficult situation.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the other hand, we have a strong leader. When the decision was made, it\u2019s for all of us to commit to that decision, even if it\u2019s difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n Aston Martin deserves the chance to be judged only once this major upgrade package arrives. Somewhere around the summer break has been mooted.<\/p>\n More on Aston Martin from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n Fernando Alonso should have retired three years ago<\/a><\/p>\n Aston Martin defends Adrian Newey gamble as AMR26 issues run deeper<\/a><\/p>\n The F1 2026 development war was always expected to be fierce, and has proved to be exactly that. Any team not engaging in this with regular upgrades would feel the pain.<\/p>\n Sadly for Aston Martin, the team was already in a challenging predicament at the back, competing exclusively with Cadillac. Naturally, the situation therefore looks dire for Aston Martin.<\/p>\n But, let\u2019s give Aston Martin the chance to validate this strategy before questioning the team\u2019s F1 credentials.<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n