Aston Martin’s Baku weekend hits new low with back-row start for Alonso and Stroll

Aston Martin’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend has taken another grim turn, with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll set to start Saturday’s race from the back of the grid after the team fitted fresh Honda power unit components. Reliability problems have repeatedly pushed the team beyond Formula 1’s annual allocation, leaving little reason to preserve parts that have become effectively unusable within the sporting limits.

Why it matters:

The penalties all but end any realistic chance of points for Aston Martin in Baku. They also underline a worrying trend: the Honda power unit’s reliability has become a recurring problem, hampering the team’s season and forcing aggressive component changes that now carry severe consequences. With both cars at the rear, the team faces an uphill battle on a circuit where overtaking is possible but not guaranteed.

The details:

• Alonso takes his fifth V6 engine and fifth turbocharger, plus a ninth set of ancillaries. He gets a 10-place penalty for both engine and turbo (his first time exceeding the limit) and a further five for the extra components.
• Stroll faces an even bigger hit: a sixth turbo, seventh battery, sixth control electronics unit and eighth ancillaries. Each exceeds the permitted allocation, stacking five-place penalties for a total of 20.
• Any penalty above 15 places results in a mandatory back-row start, making the exact numbers academic.
• The team’s lack of pace compounds the problem. Both cars finished at the bottom of Thursday’s FP2 order in Baku, with only Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas slower in FP1. Alonso managed just nine laps before a suspected oil leak sent him back to the garage.

What's next:

On a circuit where overtaking is possible, Alonso and Stroll at least have the long run to Turn 1 and the long main straight in their favor. But with a car struggling for performance and yet another reliability concern involving the very hardware that has caused so many headaches, Aston Martin faces an enormous challenge to salvage anything from the weekend. The team will need a clean race and a dose of luck to move forward, but Thursday’s evidence suggests that may be a tall order.