Australian Grand Prix: Fernando Alonso says there is ‘huge potential’ at Aston Martin

Teammate Lance Stroll was unable to run at all on Saturday at Albert Park due to engine problems and will start last.

“The mechanics have been working hard and changing the power units day and night, you know, for the last six weeks. So, even on the other side of the garage, where Lance was unlucky in FP3 and ‘quali’ with zero laps, when you go on track and you’re in a mix with a few cars, it’s a little better than dying last, like we were yesterday,” said Alonso.

“Maybe that’s enough to spark a little motivation in everyone in the garage. Maybe that’s part of our job now as drivers, you know, to keep the team morale high in difficult moments.”

The team is still facing a difficult situation and may not be able to finish Sunday’s race.

They only have two batteries left for their hybrid system, neither of which are available at the Honda factory, so they will have to race cautiously to ensure they can take part in the second Grand Prix of the season, in China next weekend.

“We are short on parts, there are no secrets there,” Alonso said.

“China is coming next week, so hopefully we can do as many laps as possible, and hopefully we can do almost the whole race.

“But the first sign that something is wrong, we can’t risk running and running until we do some big damage and then come to a compromise next week, so we have to be very flexible.

“We are one team, we cannot separate the two things. There is no secret that the main problem is the PU. We lack power and reliability. We were not able to do many laps in the winter and now we are short on battery stock, we cannot do many laps or we are short of parts. We need to repair the power units and Aston Martin is trying to help as much as possible with Honda.”