Stroll blasts Aston car as Honda hopes muted for Suzuka

Mar.24 (GMM) Lance Stroll has been captured venting his frustration at Aston Martin’s troubled 2026 car as the team prepares for Honda’s home race in Japan.

Footage from the Chinese GP weekend has emerged showing the Canadian – the son of team owner Lawrence Stroll – fuming over team radio.

“This is the worst piece of sh*t I’ve ever driven in my f*cking life,” Stroll said.

Asked later by the media what he expects from Suzuka, he added bluntly: “Just pray. Pray with me.”

The outbursts underline the scale of Aston Martin’s crisis, with the team struggling for pace, reliability and direction amid its difficult start to the Honda era.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso struck a more measured but equally resigned tone.

“I’ll continue doing my part by preparing myself physically and athletically,” he said.

“Hopefully, Honda will do its homework and we can see progress.”

Honda is expected to introduce updates for its home race, but expectations inside the team appear low.

“We will continue to work hard, but we must remain realistic,” said trackside chief Mike Krack.

“We can’t perform miracles overnight. The main thing is to work on solving the existing problems, and you can only solve one problem at a time.”

Krack confirmed new parts will be evaluated in Japan, but cautioned against expecting a breakthrough.

“We’ll bring some new stuff. We’ll see how much they help,” he said.

The sporting difficulties are compounded by ongoing uncertainty at the top of the organisation, with Adrian Newey’s role shifting away from day-to-day management amid efforts to bring in a more traditional team principal like Audi’s Jonathan Wheatley.

RTBF journalist Gaetan Vigneron believes the situation demands urgent change.

“Aston needs a director,” he said.

“This person must be politically astute and unifying, which isn’t Newey’s strong suit.”

Vigneron added that returning Newey to a purely technical focus is logical given the circumstances.

“Newey is a genius, a creator, an innovator,” he said.

“When there are new regulations, he has to exploit a grey area and find what others haven’t.

“This needs to happen very quickly.”

Even the usual Honda fanfare for Suzuka appears to be missing, with no special livery plans understood to be in place.

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