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Lance Stroll gave a scathing verdict on Aston Martin’s Formula 1 car during the last round of the championship in China.

After being eliminated in the first round of qualifying for the grand prix Stroll told his team the AMR26 was “the worst piece of shit I’ve ever driven in my fucking life.”

Stroll did not take part in qualifying for the season-opener in Melbourne due to the team’s many technical problems with its Honda-powered chassis. Both Aston Martin drivers were eliminated in Q1 in Shanghai: Fernando Alonso was over a second off making the cut while Stroll was almost eight tenths of a second further behind him, the pair separated by Valtteri Bottas’s Cadillac.

The gap between the two was fairly consistent throughout the session. While Alonso set a 1’36.338 on his first run, Stroll did a 1’37.069. His second run, a 1’36.412, wasn’t quick enough to beat his team mate’s original time, while Alonso moved nearly a full second ahead.

Stroll appeared to have strong understeer through the first corners on his second run, then grappled with a snap of oversteer as he accelerated through turn 13. “The car’s un-driveable,” he told his race engineer Gary Gannon as he headed along the back straight. “Copy that, Lance,” Gannon replied after he finished his lap.

“See the snaps I’m getting?” Stroll responded. “And the fucking locking.”

“I hear you,” Gannon replied, noting their tyres had been below the target temperature at the start of the lap, and suggesting they lower the front wing angle. “We’re still just on the low side of temp, so we’ll try and do a better job on the out-lap, and we’ll take some balance off, we’ll calm it down.”

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F1’s new engine regulations have made it more challenging for drivers to get their tyre temperatures into the optimum operating window before starting a qualifying lap. Weaving and braking to increase tyre temperatures must be weighed against the need to avoid making high demands on their batteries.

Alonso got his AMR26 into a better position when he began his runs. “The difference between the two cars is really the out-lap,” his race engineer told him before his final run, “you’re much stronger getting temperature, so keep doing that.”

Gannon told Stroll to prioritise his tyre temperatures on his final out-lap. “We’ll just push as hard as we can on the out-lap, we’ll do weaving everywhere,” he began. “I don’t even know what the [front wing] flap is,” Stroll interrupted. “I have huge under[steer] and over[steer].”

“Crazy everything,” Stroll added. “I know,” Gannon reassured him. “We’re going to take off a chunk of aero balance, that’ll just get it a little more calm, and we’ll get the tyres warmed up and it’ll be okay. So we’re just going to push on this out-lap, you’ll weave everywhere.”

However pushing harder to heat his tyres came at the expense of Stroll’s battery. On his out-lap Gannon told him he had to slow down earlier at two points on the track to increase his supply of energy.

“Definitely, on the lift-and-coast, we need 30 metres more, both places,” he said. “Much more lift-and-coast because we’re missing energy. So get that harvesting done with big lift-and-coast [at turns] six and 11.”

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This continued into his final flying lap. As Stroll approached turn 11 Gannon told him: “100 metres lift here, 100 metres lift-and-coast, big one.”

Despite this, Stroll picked up more time between his two final runs than Alonso did. Alonso gained two tenths of a second, setting personal best times in all three sectors and lowering his time to a 1’35.203.

Stroll couldn’t improve on his middle sector time but found four tenths of a second overall. However his 1’39.995 left him behind his team mate – for the 37th grand prix qualifying session in a row – and thoroughly unimpressed with his car. “It’s the worst piece of shit I’ve ever driven in my fucking life,” he said after taking the chequered flag.

2026 Chinese Grand Prix

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• Stats: Antonelli is 12th Formula 1 driver to score a ‘hat trick’ with his first win
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