Alonso, another year of suffering?
Fernando Alonso he waited patiently for 2026 knowing that owner Lawrence Stroll was working to build an invincible Aston Martin. The arrival of Adrian Newey and Honda, which had participated in all the successes of the last Red Bull cycle, seemed to reward the Spaniard’s wait, but 2026 has arrived and Alonso finds himself at the bottom of the table. In fact, he didn’t even appear in FP1, having remained in the pits due to serious problems with the Honda power unit.
It’s a frustrating situation for the two-time world champion, who has already criticized the Japanese for having produced an uncompetitive power unit with very few spare parts. Newey understands it perfectly: the Aston Martin team principal is the first to be sorry for Nandobut hopes to be able to recover the lost ground in the second part of the season.
Newey’s words
“We tried to contain our hopes because we knew this was going to be a difficult year. Of course, regarding the chassis, we started very late with a very compressed development cycle. I’m not making excuses, but we knew that in the first part of the season we would probably be a little behind“, this is Newey’s comment. Then, again with realism, he adds: “Hopefully we have the potential to recover. I think we have it chassis-wise, or would have had it without the distractions we have now“.
“Fernando is in a difficult mental situation right now. In my opinion he is one of the true greats. For his skill, his talent, his versatility, he should have won much more than two World Cups. He’s still super fast, super talented, super smart. Talking to him, he doesn’t seem to be in any pain. His eyesight is still very good, last year he was the fastest in terms of reaction time at the start“.
