Aston Martin boss Andy Cowell admits his team is mystified by its lack of race pace.

The Silverstone-based outfit arrived in Japan with Fernando Alonso yet to see the chequered flag, while Lance Stroll scored 8 points in the chaos that was Melbourne.

The Suzuka weekend got off to a strong start when Alonso posted the seventh best time of the day on Friday, but come Sunday the Spaniard finished a distant eleventh and his teammate last.

Such is the obvious lack of pace that there is talk of Adrian Newey being called on to help out, for Andy Cowell admits the team is totally mystified.

"The challenging bit is that on Friday we look stronger," said the former Mercedes man. "So on Friday we were thinking we've dialled the car in better than at previous races. And then Saturday arrived and qualifying and Lance and the car bouncing. And then the race follows on from that, doesn't it?

"This is one of those circuits that is heavily driven by where you position the car in qualifying," he said of the Suzuka track. "So I think we've missed a little bit of performance.

"I don't just want to blame the wind," he insisted. "That feels like you're blaming stuff outside your circle of influence. And this sport isn't like that, is it? It's about what's inside your circle of influence. So we need to learn what it is that a wind direction changes with regards to car performance. It's a figure of eight circuit. You can't just go blaming the wind direction. That's the only thing that we've spotted that changed."

Consequently, Cowell is looking elsewhere for the answer.

"Is there something else that we've changed on the car set-up that's changed the confidence of the drivers?" he said. "You can see it in the car as well. I think we've got a little bit more performance within the car that's here now. Saying that, we're not fighting for wins. We're a long way from that. So there's a lot of work for us to do going forward.

"When you analyse a situation, you look at the best of the best and the worst of the worst," he continued. "It's quite nice to be at the same track where we've got a stronger Friday and a weaker Saturday and therefore Sunday. You can just look at the differences across all the systems of the car, whether it's the aerodynamic system, suspension, tyres, brakes, all of it, aero balance, etc.

"So actually, Lance running all three compounds in the race, both cars finishing, and coming away without damaged cars means that we can just focus on the performance aspect. The aero, the vehicle dynamics, the tyre management.

"At the moment, there is not enough pace," he admitted. "We seem to struggle to be in Q3. We've never been so far in the race to be in the Top 10 on merit."