Given the revolving door of technical directors, team principals and CEOs at Aston Martin in recent seasons, the scrutiny of its activities during the Barcelona shakedown would have been intense even if its new car were not the first product of its new structure under Adrian Newey.
The team was the last to arrive of those who actually ran during the five days at the track, pitching up on the Wednesday evening having signalled that it would miss at least one of its permitted three days of running. When the AMR26 finally emerged from the garage on Thursday afternoon it promptly ground to a halt with Lance Stroll at the wheel - the Canadian had only completed five laps.
