Martin Brundle revealed live on air that Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll is "at his wit's end" over the team's endless reliability issues, following another retirement at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. The revelation came during Brundle's co-commentary for Sky Sports on Sunday, as Lance Stroll was told to retire his car.
Stroll's retirement marked his 13th DNF of the season, making him the first and only driver who started the race to pull out. The only other non-finisher was Valtteri Bottas, who was wheeled off the grid by Cadillac before the race began because mechanics could not remove a stuck wheel nut from the rear-right tyre.
Reliability Woes Continue
Aston Martin have struggled with numerous reliability problems, but their chief issue has been with their engines, supplied by partners Honda, which have regularly struggled with the demands of an F1 race. This time, Stroll suffered issues with his battery.
Cadillac have also faced plenty of reliability issues, but theirs are more understandable given they are F1's newest team and this is their first season on the grid. There are no such excuses for Aston Martin.
Disastrous Season for Aston Martin
Owner Lawrence Stroll, Lance's father, has poured hundreds of millions of pounds into the outfit in a bid to turn it into a race and title-winning operation. While their new facilities are state-of-the-art and Adrian Newey is now designing their cars, it has been a disastrous season.
Only seven points have been scored, all by Fernando Alonso, in a year Aston Martin had targeted as the one in which they had the best opportunity to fight at the front with the 'big four' teams. Instead, they are 10th in the constructors' championship, having outscored only pointless Cadillac.
Brundle's On-Air Comments
Brundle said during the broadcast, as he watched images of Stroll parking his car at the side of the Interlagos track, that he had spoken to the team owner earlier in the weekend. Commentator David Croft said: "Oh no, a problem with the car for Lance Stroll. Well, one day he's going to finish two races in a row, but he didn't finish in Mexico and he's not going to finish here today. And that's another massive shame for him and for Aston Martin, who have Fernando Alonso running in 12th putting pressure on Alex Albon, but it looks like a 21st DNF of the season for Aston Martin."
Brundle added: "We were talking to Lawrence Stroll, the boss, about it. He's at his wit's end, he doesn't know what to do about these endless reliability issues and non-finishes in the team. What are they going to do for next year? Have they got different ideas, different people to sort the problem out? Where the battery pack, the ERS, the energy recovery system and just the power deficit they've got. That's the problem Aston Martin have at the moment: Where do they go from here?"
Honda Unsure of Root Cause
Speaking to media after the race, Honda's trackside general manager Shintaro Orihara admitted they were unclear about the root cause of the problem which caused Stroll's battery issue. He said: "We had another battery issue today on Lance's car. We know what happened, but we don't know what is the root cause. We will check the data and also we will check the battery, and it may take a few weeks to find the root cause. But from the data we need to find some countermeasure for next year and also we need find the actual root cause of this error for next year, otherwise we keep having the same issue, so this is quite important for us to understand what is the root cause."
