Aston Martin respond to damning Lance Stroll comments

Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack has addressed Lance Stroll's alarming remarks about the AMR26 during the first week of official F1 pre-season testing.

Speaking at the Bahrain International Circuit, the Canadian driver cut a downbeat figure, contending that the first Adrian Newey-designed and Honda-powered Aston Martin was "four seconds off the top teams, four and a half seconds."

The three-time podium winner struggled to conceal his frustrations during a week where Aston Martin was the slowest of F1's 11 teams, behind new entries Cadillac and Audi.

Having missed most of the private shakedown in Barcelona, the Silverstone-based squad also clocked the fewest number of laps in Sakhir, with 203.

Various issues curtailed the team's running, and the Honda power unit was down on power compared to rivals. It has also been suggested that the aggressive design of the AMR26 is posing cooling difficulties for the engine.

When Stroll's comments were put to Krack, by media, including RacingNews365, the 53-year-old said: "Well, the drivers are everything.

"The drivers are the most important bit in all this. So we need to take it seriously, what they say."

"You need to listen to their issues — it's important to know them, because there's still a human factor; with all the engineering, with all the energy that we discussed, there is a human factor — and that is something that is still the most important factor.

"So I understand his frustrations. I understand that he would like to be on track; he would like to be first in the standings. That was not the case.

"So it's up to us to provide the tools to do that."