The Athletic

The Races

The race is on, and Ferrari ended testing on top, courtesy of Charles LeCler,

dipping into the one minute 31 bracket at the end of the final day of running in Bahrain.

But who is really the pace

setter and how did Aston Martin somehow managed to have its worst day yet of a nightmare preseason?

I'm Ed Straw and joining me to tell all are Scott Mitchell Malm and Samarth Canal.

Scott, we'll start with you. We've talked loads about Aston Martin and it struggles during

our testing coverage. We're not going to stopston Martin and it struggles during our testing coverage.

We're not going to stop now. So let's start at the bottom. The slowest car in Bahrain was Aston Martin.

Only six laps today. Didn't post a lap time. What word would you use to describe its situation?

A few spring to mind that are quite nice descriptive words.

I'm actually going to go with spiral.

I just think it works on a few different levels with the way that this programme has gone,

but you have it on a kind of micro macro level for the test.

So for this week specifically,

they've had a run of engine and battery-related problems

that have culminated in a shortage of parts.

Someone told me today, which was then not disputed when I checked it,

that they were down basically to their last battery

and that's why they had to ration the running

so ridiculously strictly, as you say,

...