What is wrong with Aston Martin and Cadillac?

By Steven Oldham

With the Australian Grand Prix now firmly in the rear view mirror, eight of Formula 1’s eleven constructors already have points on the board – but two of the remaining three, Aston Martin and Cadillac, look a long way off registering their first top ten finishes of the season.

This isn’t really a surprise – as a new entrant, expectations of Cadillac are low and Aston Martin’s pre-season struggles have been well-documented.

While Williams – the only other outfit with nil points from Melbourne – will expect to improve their fortunes in the races ahead, it looks set to be a longer slog for Aston and Cadillac.

The dire straits Aston found themselves in ahead of the season-opener was evidenced by team principal Adrian Newey admitting both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll felt that completing more than 25 and 15 laps respectively in the vibration-prone AMR-26 would leave their hands with permanent nerve damage.

Qualifying saw all four cars eliminated in Q1 as expected, with Alonso closest to making it through – although he was almost 0.8 seconds slower than Franco Colapinto’s Alpine. Team-mate Stroll failed to set a time after issues with his Honda engine prevented him even leaving the pits in qualifying. The Canadian was one of three cars allowed to race after failing to set a time, alongside Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz in the Williams. 

Sergio Perez won the inter-team battle at Cadillac – approximately 0.7 seconds behind Alonso, with the same gap back to team-mate Valtteri Bottas. The new team lined up 18th and 19th, only ahead of the three cars without a time.

The gulf between George Russell’s rocket ship Mercedes at the front and Bottas’ Cadillac saw the Finnish driver approximately 3.7 seconds off the pace of the team where he enjoyed ten race wins.

Bottas’ race lasted just 15 laps, with the Ferrari powered car pulling off at the pitlane entry with a fuel system issue – and a similar problem prevented his team-mate taking part in sprint qualifying in Shanghai.

The quartet remained the slowest cars on outright pace on race day, with Stroll’s 1:25:410 still over a tenth slower than a fuel-heavy Isaac Hadjar’s best effort in the Red Bull before his early exit.

Despite the problems, there were some positives for both constructors in Australia – Perez completed the race for Cadillac, albeit three laps down. Both Stroll and Alonso re-emerged on the track for what turned into an extended test session, having earlier pitted to seemingly retire their cars.

Stroll managed to completed 43 laps, almost three times as many as predicted before the race, while Alonso somehow found himself in the top ten in the early running following the madness of the race start. 

With both teams cut adrift in the early going, it may take a race of attrition for them to improve their fortunes in the immediate future.