Why did Fernando Alonso's seat cause so much drama at the Canadian GP?

Fernando Alonso

Why did Fernando Alonso's seat cause so much drama at the Canadian GP?

Aston Martin suffered yet more issues in Canada

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 26 May 2026 22:55

Two-time F1 world champion Fernando Alonso's race at the Canadian Grand Prix came to an early end, after a bizarre issue with his Aston Martin car.

Alonso and Aston Martin have had a 2026 season plagued by issues so far, and Alonso has only managed to finish two of the first five grands prix.

Aston Martin's new Honda power units have had reliability and power output issues, leaving the team rock bottom of the constructors' championship.

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Alonso and his team-mate Lance Stroll have regularly been left feeling uncomfortable in the AMR26, with vibrations being felt in the car, although Honda have now cured the worst of these vibrations.

However, Alonso's latest retirement at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was also down to the 44-year-old feeling uncomfortable in the car, and this time it was entirely Aston Martin's own doing.

For the 2026 season, Aston Martin have changed the drivers' seat positioning, giving the drivers a more reclined seat fitting in order to both lower the centre of gravity and also minimise aerodynamic influence of having the drivers' helmets too high up in the airflow.

But it's understood that the longer Alonso runs in that new position, the more he starts to feel uncomfortable, and after a great start in Canada which propelled him up to 10th, Alonso retired on lap 24.

"I felt more and more uncomfortable with the laps," Alonso told media after the race. "The position doesn't feel the right one and we were obviously out of the points, quite far from the points and no threat of rain anymore. So we decided to stop the pain."

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Aston Martin boss reveals Alonso issues

Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack further expanded on Aston Martin's seat positioning problems.

"He has been uncomfortable for a while - and never to the point where it was really, like, a show-stopper," Krack told media about Alonso. "It's like a pressure point where you feel that it gets worse and worse.

"I think we need to reconsider, a little bit, the positioning. You try with these cars to be as low as you can - and when you look at how the drivers used to sit over the last years, it goes more and more and more into a lying position.

"Maybe we have gone a step too far, but it's something we will need to check."

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F1 Aston Martin Fernando Alonso Canadian Grand Prix