Lance Stroll has conceded that Aston Martin's chassis performance is also a stumbling block for the team, describing the Adrian Newey design as not the "rippiest beast."
Although most of Aston Martin's troubles in 2026 have been caused by the unreliability and lack of performance from the power unit, the chassis itself is also not believed to be fully optimised for performance.
From the three races thus far, Stroll is yet to see the chequered flag, having retired in both China and Japan, and received a rare 'not classified' in Australia as he stopped during the race, but then returned to the track, eventually finishing 15 laps down on winner George Russell.
Reflecting on the situation, Stroll conceded that the Newey-penned AMR26 machine was still lacking in some areas.
"I think it is a combination of power unit and car," Stroll told media, including RacingNews365, when asked about Aston Martin's problems.
"We're definitely losing huge amounts of time on the straights, but we're not the rippiest beast in the corners, so it is a combination of things.
"Progress in Formula 1 is never fast enough, so right now there's no progress because we've been in China and then came straight to Japan.
"We haven't had much time to throw things at the car in terms of development, but we have a plan for the next few months, and what that brings in lap-time, time will tell."
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