Spanish F1 reporter Antonio Lobato reports fernando alonso On the second day of pre-season testing in Bahrain, he got out of his Aston Martin and threw away his gloves in frustration. The British team suffered another disastrous day of testing, with Alonso nearly four seconds adrift of the leader.

people have so much expectations for it Aston Martin 2026 will enter the era of new rules, and many fans and experts expect the team to make great progress on the field. This is largely down to the optimism of Adrian Newey and Honda joining the project.

But Aston Martin’s pre-season ahead of the 2026 F1 season has had a rocky start so far. The Silverstone-based side were first postponed during Barcelona’s shake-up in January and are now struggling to catch up with the rest of the Bahrain side.

Driver Fernando Alonso seemed frustrated by his slow start. Spanish journalist Antonio Lobato, who was present at the Bahrain test, reported that the veteran driver threw away his gloves in frustration after getting off the AMR 26 after a session on Thursday.

Lobato also claimed that Aston Martin is currently nowhere near its target for the 2026 model year.

“Getting out of the car, throwing away the gloves, they are not where they want to be, not very far,” wrote Lobato, who also included a photo of Fernando Alonso in the garage via his Instagram Story.

Legendary designer Adrian Newey joined Aston Martin in September 2025 with the goal of creating a car capable of fighting on the front line. Since then, the Englishman has been given important additional responsibilities within the team structure as team leader. It remains to be seen how the program will develop as the 2026 season gets under way, but early signs point to Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll This year is likely to get off to a challenging start.

Fernando Alonso team-mate Lance Stroll shares harsh verdict on Aston Martin in Bahrain

Fernando Alonso’s team-mate Lance Stroll also looked frustrated when speaking to the media during pre-season testing in Bahrain. The 27-year-old said Aston Martin appeared to be a shocking four seconds behind the top teams during testing.

Stroll gave a pessimistic assessment of the car when speaking to media in Bahrain, saying: (via British Broadcasting Corporation)

“Right now we look four seconds, four and a half seconds behind the top teams. It’s impossible to know the fuel load and everything that people are running. But now we need to try and find four seconds of performance.”

While Lance Stroll didn’t race on day two, Fernando Alonso went some way to proving his theory on Thursday, finishing 3.975 seconds behind the day’s fastest driver. Charles Leclerc (1:34.273).

Additionally, when asked if there were any positives about Aston Martin, Lance Stroll mentioned that the weather in Bahrain was great and the livery looked good. This harsh verdict from the Canadian highlights just how bad Aston Martin’s pre-season has been.