‘Disappointed’ Aston Martin on a ‘learning curve’

Lance Stroll admitted that Aston Martin had a “learning curve” ahead of them after a disappointing start to the season in qualifying in Bahrain.

© PA Biller
Aston Martin Reserve Nico Hulkenberg is interviewed. March 2022, Bahrain.

Both drivers were eliminated in Q1 with Stroll set up for P19 and stand-in pilot Nico Hulkenberg starting P17 for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Significant investment has been made at Aston Martin in hopes of bringing the team closer to the top Formula 1 candidates in the coming years, but their start in 2022 has left them working to reach their main competitors.

Stroll looked on the bright side as the points were awarded on Sunday, but admitted that his car’s lineup could be suboptimal in the race.

“We are disappointed with today’s result and it is not what we expected after a positive FP3,” the Canadian said. “We made some changes to the car and maybe they were in the wrong direction.

“In qualifying, we do not have the grip to extract performance. We have to go over the data and understand it so that we can learn from it.

This marks the end of our qualifying session.

We did a hard job before the evening. We are ready to fight tomorrow. # F1 #BahrainGP pic.twitter.com/oVOqn6lfxv

– Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team (@ AstonMartinF1) March 19, 2022

“The early races will be a learning curve as we try to understand the car more. Tomorrow is a new day, so we will be ready again to try and make progress in the race.

Hulkenberg, on the other hand, came on short for Sebastian Vettel after the four-time former world champion tested positive for COVID-19, and was at the pace of his Aston Martin partner Stroll off the offseason.

He was satisfied with what he was able to get from the AMR22 and despite such a small rift between him and a place in Q2, he said he was “satisfied” with how the session went.

“I think it was a good qualy – in short – but from where I was sitting it was good,” he told Formula1.com.

“I am happy with the rounds I have produced. They were clean, they were good, I did not think I left much outside.

“Doing that, I think it was five hundredths on Q2. You can probably always get that somewhere, but there was no obvious mistake where I really lost round time.

“From the point of view of where I came from at the beginning of this weekend, I’m pretty happy and satisfied with it.

“I have respect for tomorrow and the race. That will, I think, be the hardest day actually and the biggest challenge ahead, because [of] again in combat, surrounded by cars.

“That’s going to be challenging, tire management and all. It’s a big task, a big challenge.

“But like I did so far, I’ll just do what I can and we’ll see what happens.”