It has been a thoroughly miserable 2026 season for Aston Martin, and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend is already following a familiar pattern.
Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will take on new power unit components beyond their allotted allocation in Baku, resulting in a combined 45-place grid penalty for the struggling team.
Alonso faces a 25-place penalty after taking on a fifth engine, a fifth turbocharger, and a ninth Power Unit Ancillary Component ahead of the Baku street circuit race.
Stroll will drop 20 places on the grid after fitting a sixth turbocharger, a seventh energy store, a sixth control electronics unit, and an eighth Power Unit Ancillary Component.
Under current regulations, drivers who accumulate more than 15 places worth of engine-related penalties are required to start from the very back of the grid.
In practice, the penalties are largely academic, given that neither Aston Martin driver is expected to qualify anywhere near a position where the drop would make a meaningful difference.
The Baku weekend comes off the back of a string of painful results for the Silverstone-based outfit across recent rounds of the championship.
A brief moment of encouragement arrived when Alonso finished ninth at the Dutch Grand Prix after the summer break, but that form quickly evaporated with a double retirement at Monza and a retirement plus a 17th place finish in Madrid.
Adding further uncertainty to Aston Martin’s situation is the unresolved question of Alonso’s future in Formula 1, with the team yet to receive a definitive answer from the Spaniard on whether he will continue racing.
Senior team executive Mike Krack addressed the situation directly last week, saying: “Well, you ask him how serious. I mean, at the end of the day, I think we were always clear the team wants to continue.”
Krack continued: “I think we have made it clear all through, but we need to respect what Fernando’s thoughts are.”
He added: “We need to respect the time he wants to take. And, as I said before, we’re confident we can reach a good solution for everybody. And now it’s about waiting. He needs to make up his mind and then we move on.”
With Alonso’s future unresolved, Aston Martin executives have admitted they still do not know whether they will need to find a new team-mate for Stroll heading into the next season.