Aston Martin head to the 2025 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after failing to score a point in back-to-back races with Fernando Alonso also still yet to get off the mark this season.
Lance Stroll has scored all 10 of the Silverstone squad’s points so far this term to leave Aston Martin only seventh in the F1 constructors’ championship. The Canadian earned eight at the season-opener in Australia plus two fortuitous points in China after others were disqualified.
Aston Martin’s point-less streak would now be three rounds if not for the disqualifications of Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly in Shanghai. Stroll hit the chequered flag in just 12th place, before securing P20 in Japan and P17 in Bahrain with Alonso in P11 and P15.
Last week’s Bahrain Grand Prix was especially break for Aston Martin after Alonso and Stroll also only qualified in P13 and P19. Alonso also lapped the Sakhir track slower than Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg in Q2 by 0.193 seconds, yet the German was demoted for a deleted Q1 lap.
Aston Martin have an ‘abysmal’ traction problem ‘no one’ expected would be so bad
Martin Brundle thinks Aston Martin are struggling ‘horribly’ after Haas even jumped them in the F1 constructors’ standings in Sakhir. It also did not help their problems that Aston Martin ‘annoyed’ Stroll in qualifying at the Bahrain GP as the team got his ride height set-up wrong.
The Bahrain GP even highlighted how bad Aston Martin’s car is in slow-speed corners due to it struggling for traction. And according to Auto Motor und Sport, ‘no one’ at Aston Martin’s factory expected their ‘abysmal’ traction problems would be this bad when creating the car.
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Alonso and Stroll lost chunks of time in the slow-speed corners which make up a majority of the circuit’s 15 turns. Traction out of Turn 1 is especially key for a successful race in Sakhir as it sets up the Turns 2 into 3 run onto the first DRS straight and the main T4 overtaking point.
Additionally, Aston Martin struggling for traction in the Bahrain GP caused Alonso and Stroll to manage their rear tyres to stop the Pirelli rubber overheating. So, the Silverstone squad’s engineers are now striving to find answers to improve the AMR25 and to move up the field.
Saudi Arabia’s fast street track could mitigate Aston Martin’s slow-speed corner problems
Alonso and Stroll face having to manage the AMR25’s traction problem for a few more races yet, including this weekend’s Saudi Arabian GP, as Aston Martin’s first significant upgrades are due at Imola. The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on May 16-18 is the first European round.
Jeddah being one of the fastest circuits on the 2025 F1 calendar could at least mitigate their problems at the Saudi Arabian GP, however. Only Turns 1, 2 and 4 among the 27 corners are really slow-speed, but traction will be critical out of Turns 2, 4, 13 and 27 for a fast flying lap.
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