Aston Martin: We'll work hard and fast to remedy the situation
F1 NewsSaturday, 19 March 2022 at 19:14
Aston Martin were woeful under the bright lights of qualifying for the 2022 Formula 1 season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, their drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll stranded in Q1, ending 17th and 19th.
With Sebastian Vettel sidelined with corona, Hulkenberg was called up last minute to substitute and, in fairness did a solid job but Stroll in the other Aston Martin was even slower. This is surely not what Lawrence Stroll and his posse of buddies signed up for.
The "situation" was so bad that the team headlined their qualifying report: "We are racers and we will work as hard and as fast as possible to remedy the situation."
Nwly appointed Aston Martin Team Principal, Mike Krack delivered the bad news: “We are obviously disappointed by today’s qualifying performance, but we will work hard this evening to see what we can do to optimise our race pace and strategy for tomorrow.
"There is not a lot more to say at this stage, but we are racers and we will work as hard and as fast as possible to remedy the situation," added the team boss.
Something happened between FP3 and qualy to the car, which had been 1.3 seconds off the top time in FP3 which stretched to three seconds slower when it mattered in the evening session at Sakhir.
Lance Stroll: We're disappointed with the result and unexpected after a positive FP3
He explained: "We made some changes to the car and perhaps they were in the wrong direction. In qualifying, we did not have the grip to extract the performance.
"We need to go over the data and understand it so we can learn from this. The early races are going to be a learning curve as we try to understand the car more. We will come back ready to try to make progress in the race," concluded Stroll.
Hulkenberg: I am happy, considering that I had very limited experience with the car
The German F1 veteran did well after being jettisoned in without any preseason testing to sub for Vettel, he summed up his most unexpected qualifying: “Obviously we are not happy with P17 but, on a personal level, I am happy.
"Considering that I had very limited experience with the car, I was able to put together some clean laps without any errors. The field is very close this year so it was fine margins that stopped us from reaching Q2.
"The real challenge begins tomorrow for me: I have not raced a Formula One car in almost two years. You cannot really prepare for going wheel-to-wheel with other cars and having to do things like tyre management.
"However, I am looking forward to racing the AMR22 tomorrow and I intend to enjoy every lap in the car," added Hulkenberg who made his F1 debut at the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix and on Sunday will line up for his 180th start at the same venue it all began for him.
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