Look, nobody expected miracles from Aston Martin this season, but as FormulaUno.it reports, the situation inside the garage is reaching a genuine boiling point. The Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos brought the usual mix of flickering hope and crushing reality. Fernando Alonso managed to drag his machine into Q3 for the first time this season, taking full advantage of the wet weather and the penalties of others to start from the fourth row. Unfortunately, a wild slide by Oliver Bearman right in front of him at the Senna esses on the opening lap wrecked his momentum and cost him multiple positions. From there, it was a lonely fight against the glaring power deficit of the Honda power unit, ending with Alonso crossing the line in twelfth place.
That deficit on the straights was so brutal in the damp conditions that Alonso offered up one of his classic, sarcastic onboard waves to the rivals who blew past him on the main straight. Even so, the double world champion found plenty of positives to take away from a weekend where the car finally felt alive in the corners. "It went definitely better in the wet than in the dry," Alonso admitted after the race, noting that the pace was a genuine surprise. He pointed out that while they lacked straight-line speed, they managed to fight Ferraris early on and match Mercedes' pace toward the end, proving the chassis handles well even if the power unit leaves them stranded.
Saturday we had a battery failure on Lance's car and Sunday the same problem repeated,
Down the other side of the garage, Lance Stroll suffered yet another disastrous retirement, marking the 13th time this year he has failed to finish. Running in 18th place and sitting 28 seconds behind his teammate, Stroll was forced to park his car on the 30th lap due to a battery failure. It was the exact same electrical gremlin that had struck his car for two consecutive days between Saturday and Sunday. The American triple-header has been an absolute horror show for the squad, resulting in an alarming five retirements across six total starts for the two cars.
Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack did not sugarcoat the team's struggles after the race, pointing straight to the reliability nightmare while acknowledging the strategic calls that kept them fighting through changing tyre conditions. But the real panic isn't just about missing out on points right now—it is about a power unit partner that is officially flying blind. Shintaro Orihara, general manager and chief engineer for Honda on the track, made the staggering admission that engineers still do not know what is triggering these battery breakdowns.
"Saturday we had a battery failure on Lance's car and Sunday the same problem repeated," Orihara explained, adding that while they know what broke, the root cause remains a complete mystery. The Japanese manufacturer stated they will need weeks to analyze components and data, raising massive red flags for reliability heading into 2027. Orihara also conceded that the wet asphalt at Interlagos mercifully masked their raw power and electrical deployment deficits, leaving the team with urgent problems to solve before the season closes out.
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