Fernando Alonso has pinpointed Aston Martin missing the majority of the private shakedown in Barcelona as a key factor in why the team was "on the back foot" during the first official pre-season test at the Bahrain International Circuit.
The Silverstone-based squad was the slowest of F1's 11 teams in Sakhir last week, and completed the fewest number of laps, having only managed 65 between the Spaniard and team-mate Lance Stroll at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in late January.
Not only was the AMR26 four-to-four-and-a-half seconds off the pace, by Stroll's estimates, Aston Martin also encountered numerous issues with the car and its new Honda power unit.
"Definitely, we are not in the position we wanted to be, and we started on the back foot," Alonso observed to media, including RacingNews365.
"Missing Barcelona was a big thing, because we not only missed Barcelona, but also the filming days before, and [Audi] ran its car on January 9th.
"So they've now had one month analysing data and solving problems, this sensor here, that temperature there, and we didn't run in Barcelona, we didn't have any filming days and here and now for us is the first test in Bahrain."
Whilst Williams missed the trip to Spain entirely, the Grove-based team enjoyed a strong opening test in Bahrain — but the James Vowles-led operation can rely on Mercedes power units and gearboxes, whereas it is believed by some within the paddock that the aggressive design of Adrian Newey's first Aston Martin is posing issues for the Honda engine.
Alonso continued: "So we are finding small issues here and there on every single run, and this is affecting the programme. When you are not running cleanly run after run, it is not progressing the setup.
"If we had a programme of testing three different stiffnesses on the suspension. We do one run, and then something appears on the data we need to look into, or change the sensor.
"We go back out one hour later, but the track is different, so we are finding limitations on unlocking performance because we don't run continuously.
"The other teams found these difficulties on the filming days or in the first couple of days in Barcelona, and we are finding them now, unfortunately."
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