Honda is Aston Martin's biggest problem ahead of Formula 1's Melbourne season opener

Adrian Newey's start to life at Aston Martin has been far from smooth with delays in the delivery of his first green car, the AMR26, while preseason testing has been a horrendous experience for the team.

The AMR26 turned heads with its radical design cues, but all the fascination with Newey's first Aston Martin project faded as the car suffered one reliability problem after another during the tests in Barcelona and Bahrain.

While Newey's designs are sometimes too complicated and require some time to be fine-tuned, all signs now that Honda has delivered another troublesome F1 power unit reminiscent of their fiasco with McLaren back in 2015 during the first V6 turbo-hybrid era.

Former F1 driver Riccardo Patrese was asked about his view on the situation at Aston Martin. He said: "Adrian Newey looks lost. But it looks like the biggest problem is Aston Martin with Honda.

"Sometimes Honda look lost because they cannot provide the right power. And because of that, even a good car that Adrian probably is able to deliver is suffering by not having the right power.

"I read that for at least six or seven months they cannot have the engine working properly because they burn the battery, and the kilowatts that the battery can provide are not enough to have the right power.

"So if they have to lose six months of the season before coming closer to the right engine package, their season is gone," the Italian warned.

While Newey can surely sort out any chassis problems, there is so much he can do when it comes to the power unit.

Patrese added: "It is a pity because, knowing Adrian very well, he's a person that doesn't stop working to find a solution. For sure he will be a bit worried at the moment, yeah, as probably will the owner of the team, Mr. [Lawrence] Stroll. He has spent a lot of money into Aston Martin with Adrian Newey top of the program.

"What really worries me is the impact on Adrian Newey at Aston Martin because he is a friend of mine and a fantastic engineer. Probably this year is a complete write-off for them because Honda cannot provide the charge to the battery to have the power you need.

"I hope that Adrian can again dominate as an engineer as he has done for the past 30 years. But it looks like for this year probably the car cannot be competitive," the 71-year-old former racer concluded.