Aston Martin’s toil in the lower midfield in Saudi Arabia was in stark contrast to its front-row start two years ago.

Lance Stroll was knocked out in Q1 in Saudi Arabia, setting a new, unenviable record as the driver with the most eliminations in Q1, while Fernando Alonso could only manage 13th in the sister car.

Lance Stroll: This is the nature of Formula 1

Neither Stroll nor Alonso could fight their way into the points on Sunday, with Alonso finishing 11th while Stroll – who set off on the hard tyre – finished in the same position he started in with 16th place.

With tyre degradation not playing a major factor in the race, the hard tyre strategy might have worked out had a Safety Car been triggered in the mid to late stages of the race, but this scenario never unfolded.

It marked the latest points-less race for Aston Martin, which has scored 10 points in the first five race weekends. All 10 points have been scored by Stroll, across two finishes in Australia and China.

It’s a far cry from two years ago. At the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2023, Alonso started the race in Jeddah from the front row, with Stroll in fifth. While the Canadian retired early with a mechanical issue, he had already produced a stunning overtake on Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to move into fourth and was eyeing up a potential podium before his car gave up.

Alonso did manage the podium, finishing third, only bested by the dominant Red Bulls.

With Aston Martin’s AMR25 one of the slowest cars on the grid, no such heroics are on the horizon this year, with Stroll admitting to the media on Thursday in Jeddah that the car doesn’t have any particular definable strengths at present, with its best quality being that of straight-line braking.

Asked by PlanetF1.com as to how difficult it can be to dig deep and deliver at 100 per cent when there’s seemingly not much chance of reward at present, Stroll said, “Well, that’s Formula 1.

“You know, you have years where it’s more difficult than other years and years you have good cars and you’re always fighting.

“I think two years ago, when we were here, after Lap 1, I think we were first and third or fourth or something, and I was fighting for a podium spot before, I think, the engine failed.

“Then, two years later, you’re fighting for 16th. But that’s the nature of Formula 1. So you have to just always give it your all, keep pushing, and things change quickly.”

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Lance Stroll: Upgrades and areas of focus were not right

With Aston Martin’s new chief managing partner Adrian Newey now working at its Silverstone campus but not paying any attention to improving the 2025 car as his focus is solely on the upcoming regulations change in 2026, Stroll said that it’s not a case of completely giving up on this year just yet.

That’s despite 2026’s regulations changes offering low-hanging fruit to all the teams at this point, with the reward for unlocking performance this year becoming less and less as the races tick by.

“We’re not where we want to be. The year is still young. We’re going to do what we can,” he said.

“For sure, next year is a big rule change, and we need to be focused on that. But we’re not quitting. We’re not giving up the year yet. We’re going to try and do what we can.

“Is it going to be enough to, you know, get ahead of the midfield and all those things? We’ll see. But we still have an opportunity to bring something so we’ll do what we can.

“I don’t think we have a target. We want to be a lot more competitive than we are at this point. It’s just about bringing as much performance as we can for the remainder of the year, and see how much it brings.

“That’s all we can focus on. Just bring what we can. We have some ideas for the coming races. I think we need to improve in all areas, so that’s clear.”

As for what’s caused the slump in performance over the course of two years, Stroll said, “I think if we had the answer to that question, I don’t think we’d be where we are today.”

The most notable casualty of the intervening time period was former technical director Dan Fallows, who arrived in early 2023 and oversaw the design of the AMR24 and 25 – with his input coinciding with the drop-off in the team’s competitiveness. Moving into a role within Aston Martin Performance Technologies last November as new CEO Andy Cowell arrived in the team, Fallows is set to leave the organisation outright.

“I think just decisions on what path to take with upgrades and which areas to focus on probably, in hindsight, some of those things were not the right thing,” Stroll said.

“Things could have been different – not probably, I assume that’s what it is, just speaking with the guys and looking at where we are, we’re not nearly as competitive as we were two years ago. So something didn’t go right along the way, that’s for sure.

“We have a better understanding of what is wrong with the car and areas to improve on. But time is our enemy with that kind of thing.”

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