F1 Dutch Grand Prix: Aston Martin confirm pitlane start for Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso in Shanghai — Photo: © IMAGO

Aston Martin F1

Aston Martin confirm pitlane start for Fernando Alonso at F1 Dutch Grand Prix

Alonso had a miserable sprint qualifying

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Saturday 22 August 2026 10:57 Updated: 11:14

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Aston Martin have announced that Fernando Alonso will start today's sprint race at the Dutch Grand Prix (1100 UK time) from the pitlane.

The 45-year-old two-time world champion endured a miserable sprint qualifying session at Zandvoort on Friday, making an early exit in SQ1 after finishing 22nd and last.

Afterwards it was revealed that the Spanish superstar's straight line mode (or straight mode) was not working during the session, effectively removing any hope of being able to fight his rivals for grid position.

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Speaking afterwards Alonso said: “Things seemed to go okay for us in free practice, but then we experienced some drivability issues in sprint qualifying and it was difficult to stop the car sometimes.

"The rear wing didn’t open for us either, so we lost lap time with that."

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Aston Martin confirm 'overnight changes' and pitlane start

On the back of that Aston Martin announced on Saturday morning that Alonso will now start today's race from the pitlane.

A team statement read: "For today's sprint, Fernando will start from the pitlane due to some setup changes made overnight. The SLM issue from yesterday has been resolved."

Friday's issues for Alonso and Aston Martin were massively unwelcome as the team looks to gather data on the impact of that long-awaited Honda power unit upgrade.

Alonso admitted: "It’s very early days with Honda’s upgrade package, so we’ll try to understand more in the sprint.”

Aston had come into the Zandvoort weekend with renewed optimism after a disastrous start to the 2026 season. A massive upgrades package (16 in total) brought by team principal Adrian Newey had helped Alonso make it out of Q1 at the recent Hungarian Grand Prix.

Today's 100km race at Zandvoort starts at 1100 UK time (1200 local time, 0600 Eastern) with Sky Sports F1 broadcasting live in the UK and Apple TV in the US.

What is F1 straight mode?

Previously known as 'X mode', the all new 'straight mode' is exactly what it says on the tin. Each circuit will contain designated zones where 'straight mode' can be used on (you guessed it) the straights.

Where DRS was restricted to specific zones, drivers can now manually switch between straight mode and corner modes, with the former mode now available on more straights than DRS.

When straight mode is deployed, both the front and rears wings will change to a lower angle to reduce the overall drag and allow for greater speed on the straights.

F1 Aston Martin Fernando Alonso Dutch Grand Prix