Fernando Alonso delivers blunt verdict on Aston Martin’s struggling F1 rebuild

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso delivers blunt verdict on Aston Martin’s struggling F1 rebuild

Fernando Alonso is not expecting improvements any time soon

Originally written by Sam Cook. This version is a translation.

Thursday 7 May 2026 19:00

Fernando Alonso has admitted Aston Martin may not see immediate improvements anytime soon as the team continues to battle through a difficult Formula 1 campaign.

The Silverstone-based squad has endured a miserable start to the new 2026 era and remains at the bottom of the constructors’ standings without scoring a single point so far this season.

There was at least a small positive in Miami, where both Aston Martin drivers successfully completed the sprint race and Sunday’s Grand Prix. It marked the team’s first double finish in a full Grand Prix weekend since the 2025 season finale in Abu Dhabi.

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But they were still very slow. Aston Martin did not bring any upgrades to their chassis despite there having been a five-week break in the sport, and Alonso and Lance Stroll finished down in 15th and 17th respectively.

Aston Martin's power unit partners Honda are understood to have solved their vibrations, however, giving the drivers a little more comfort and eliminating some of the worst reliability issues that they've had for much of the year so far.

"We’ll take it step by step," Alonso told media in Miami. "These are going to be tough races; it’s going to be repetitive.

"Obviously, we have media sessions every day: on the first day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday."

A journalist then jokingly replied: "I'm sorry", before Alonso continued: "That’s fine. You’re just doing your job. But the message seems repetitive: we won’t have any improvements until after the summer.

"What can we expect in Canada? The same. What can we expect in Austria? The same. We have to manage everyone’s frustration in the team, but I think we’re relaxed. We’re all committed to ensuring that after the summer we have a better second half of the year."

Aston Martin's hopes rest on Adrian Newey

Amid their new power unit partnership with Honda and the new regulation changes that were sweeping into the sport, Aston Martin harboured ambitions of becoming a race-winning team this year, and their owner Lawrence Stroll wants to challenge for world championships in the future.

Aston Martin have brought design legend Adrian Newey into the fold, and he has claimed 26 championship titles across his illustrious career.

With Honda beginning to get to the bottom of their power unit struggles, Aston Martin's hopes for the remainder of the season, and indeed future years, rest on Newey being able to develop ground-breaking upgrades.

His AMR26 design is understood to not be operating at a high level, and an F1 insider even suggested that Aston Martin would currently be struggling even with a dominant Mercedes power unit in the back of their cars.

It seems as though the team are going to have wait until at least the summer break until they start seeing what their car can do.

F1 Aston Martin Adrian Newey Fernando Alonso Honda