Fernando Alonso highlights 'square one' reality for Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso has conceded Aston Martin is still at “square one” as he issued an update over the team's continued struggles.

A lack of mileage ahead of the season-opening grand prix from Australia placed Aston Martin on the back foot, with its running limited by significant vibrations from the Honda power unit.

Both Alonso and Lance Stroll failed to finish the grand prix in Melbourne last Sunday as the team works on a fix with its engine supplier.

Alonso admitted he is not expecting a different showing from the team as the weekend progresses at round two in China.

“Not really different, I would say,” the two-time champion told media including RacingNews365. 

“The situation, unfortunately, didn't change within four or five days since Melbourne. 

“It's going to be another difficult weekend, trying to understand as much as possible on the car. 

“Eventually, limit the laps in a couple of the sessions because we are short on parts. [We will] try to get something positive out of the weekend.”

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F1 rivals '10 times' ahead of Aston Martin - Alonso

Strong results are not the priority for Aston Martin as it simply looks to get its car into a position in which it can run uninterrupted.

But with no spare batteries currently in its pool, the team is wary of the danger another failure would pose to its entry into the remainder of the weekend.

Alonso stated a successful weekend from China would be reaching the end of the weekend without any reason to limit his track-time, rather than achieving a positive classification.

“When we are able to do laps without any issues, I think they are very important laps,” he said.

“[Other teams] were not optimised for Australia, apparently it was the same case for everybody. 

“They are maybe 10 times ahead of us if they completed 1,000 laps. Since the Barcelona test, we completed maybe 100. We are nine or 10 times behind. 

“If they are still not perfectly optimised, imagine ourselves, we are at square one. We really need the laps. 

“We really need to be able to practice and to find the window on the car, on the chassis side. And that will obviously be very important for the weekend.

“I will be happy if we leave China with a more or less normal free practice, more or less normal quali, accumulating laps and probably attempting the full race on Sunday, if we are allowed.”

Alonso managed just 18 laps during free practice on Friday morning in Shanghai before being dumped out at the end of SQ1, securing a starting position towards the back of the grid for the sprint race.