Aston Martin issue remarkable apology after nightmare Barcelona weekend

Aston Martin has issued an apology to its F1 fans who attended the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, following a poor performance. 

Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso qualified 21st and 22nd for Alonso's home race, with the Canadian 1.001s slower than Valtteri Bottas's Cadillac in Q1, as he also out-qualified Alonso for the first time since the 2024 British GP - 42 races ago. 

Alonso would start from the pit-lane after power unit component changes, with Stroll then dropping out after five laps with a gearbox problem. 

On Lap 38, Alonso then stopped in front of the Alonso grandstand at Turn 9 to compound a miserable weekend for the team with the AMR26 struggling through the high-speed Barcelona turns. 

After the tough outing, Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack issued an apology to fans who had travelled to "see their heroes."

"It was a disappointing weekend. It was difficult; we expected a difficult weekend, but then having poor performance and having two DNFs does not make it easy," Krack told media, including RacingNews365.

"In the first place, I feel sorry for all the fans in green shirts and in the grandstands and in the paddock, there were so many when we drove in and out.

"It was so nice to see all these people with the green shirts, and we could not give them anything to cheer about, which is a shame because we started from the pit-lane, and then we could not finish the race with a decent result. 

"So I am really sorry for all the fans that have bought expensive tickets to see their heroes, and we could not give them the hardware to perform. 

When then asked if there was anything the team had learned through the tough weekend, Krack signalled that there was.

"You always learn new things, as crazy as it might sound, when you are between three and four seconds off, you think you are driving casually, but you still learn a lot," he said.

"Barcelona is very, very difficult for the energy. You have seen the FIA tweaking the energy a couple of times before the event, so it is a difficult circuit for energy, and I think we learned a great deal about how to adjust our processes to get the maximum out of it.

"So, there are some small positives, but it is difficult to see them. The single pit stop that we did was very good, in my opinion, so we have to work with these and try to improve in all other areas."