F1 Dutch Grand Prix: Fernando Alonso issues 'incredible' Aston Martin verdict after Newey upgrades

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Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso issues 'incredible' Aston Martin F1 verdict after Adrian Newey upgrades

Alonso qualified 18th for the Dutch GP

Simmey Hannifin Donaldson F1 Editor

Motorsport journalist covering F1 since 2024

Saturday 22 August 2026 20:15

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Fernando Alonso now believes that Aston Martin have a very good car after Adrian Newey worked his upgrade magic, but warned that there is still one key area to address.

After a disastrous first half of the season, Newey and Aston Martin introduced a major overhaul of their AMR26 at the Hungarian Grand Prix before the summer break, which instantly made them more competitive.

Further upgrades were introduced for the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, with Honda also providing the team with a new, upgraded power unit for the second half of the season.

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However, Alonso has been experiencing issues with that power unit all weekend. He qualified P22 in sprint qualifying on Friday and only made his way up to 18th in the race itself.

Fernando Alonso hails 'incredible' Aston Martin turnaround

On Saturday, Alonso put his AMR26 in 18th position in grand prix qualifying, but his time in Q1 was within one second (+0.955s) of Oscar Piastri, who set the fastest lap of the session at that stage.

With that said, Alonso offered an optimistic outlook and hailed the team's progress, despite their ongoing issues.

“It didn’t go well. People were doing warm-up laps, and some were even doing fast laps, so there’s always a tenth of a second difference," Alonso told Spanish outlet AS.

"Although I don’t think the final position would have changed much; it’s not like the previous lap was four tenths off. I was close to the limit, that’s just how it is.”

“In Budapest we made it to Q2, and here we were just one-tenth away," Alonso continued. "Plus, this is the smallest margin behind the Q1 leader. Piastri was 1.3 seconds [+0.955s] ahead of us. Before, we had an average gap of 4.5 seconds to the best, so we’ve improved by three seconds over two races. It’s encouraging.

"It's incredible; everything is working as planned. But it's a tough sport, and you always have to improve."

Alonso: Significant time to be gained but Honda must improve

Alonso continued, explaining that the Aston Martin chassis is now very good, and that there was significant lap time to be gained once Honda are able to fix those power unit gremlins.

“There’s lap time to be gained with the handling improvements, but unfortunately, we can’t do much on the track," the Spaniard added.

"We need significant changes from the factory, in the software or wherever it’s needed. This has to come from Japan, and it won’t happen overnight.

"It will be closer to Monza, where we need to take another step. And yes, there are a couple of tenths of a second to be gained when it comes to optimising the package.”

Alonso previews Dutch GP

It will be fascinating to see how Alonso and Aston Martin get on in Sunday's race, particularly given that Alonso claims they tend to perform better on Sundays.

"Normally we're a bit better in race pace; our chassis is very good. When people have old tires, or older than ours, we can rely more on the good grip the chassis gives us and not depend so much on tire grip," Alonso concluded.

"And that way we do a better job. Although at the same time we can't overtake on the straight, so we're in a difficult situation. We'll do the best we can.”

F1 HEADLINES: Lewis Hamilton title bid falters as teams bring 23 upgrades to Dutch Grand Prix

QUALIFYING RESULTS: Dutch Grand Prix times and grid positions from Zandvoort

F1 Aston Martin Adrian Newey Fernando Alonso Dutch Grand Prix