Fernando Alonso admits Aston Martin is doing its best for 2026, but acknowledges they are going in blind because nobody knows what the others are doing.
The change Formula 1 will undergo in 2026, with the new aerodynamic and engine regulations, is so significant that until that time arrives, everyone will be making predictions about potential performance. However, those very rules will prevent anyone from knowing how the grid will shape up until the moment of truth.
That’s how Fernando Alonso explains it in an interview with DAZN published Wednesday and recorded during the Spanish GP weekend, where he was asked a series of theoretically complex questions.
The first question referred to a statement he made a few days earlier in Monaco about collecting retirements now and winning in Australia 2026, at the first race. Asked whether that dream is realistic, he replied: “Well, from now until 2026 people will wonder whether we can win, whether we can fight for the title, and that’s what excites the fans and what excites us at Aston Martin as we head into the winter of 2025.”
“I don’t think anyone can know if the car or the car’s direction is right or not, and until we do the first tests, we won’t be sure. Even during the first tests, we still won’t know until we’ve done a few races. So…”
“We keep dreaming, but it’s the kind of winter where nobody can know anything. I mean, no matter what people say or how optimistic or pessimistic they might be, no one will have a clue until the first race.”
Looking ahead to next year, the two-time world champion was asked if he’s been getting closer to the Aston Martin Racing engineers working on the 2026 car at the Silverstone factory. He said: “Well, yes, although there’s not much to say at the moment. And I’ll tell you that even one week before the car presentation this winter, if we ask the engineers and designers what they think of the car or how optimistic they are, the answer will be that they haven’t the faintest idea.”
“Today we’ve done the best job we could do so far. We’ve improved some of the weak points that the car seemed to have when we designed it, but we really don’t know what our rivals have been working on or what direction they’ve gone in. So we need to be patient and confident at the same time.”
Returning to the idea of accumulating all the bad luck and problems this year to avoid them when there’s a real shot at winning, Alonso doesn’t think karma can be so easily balanced and admitted: “I wish we hadn’t had some of the issues we’ve had in 2025. And bad luck, you can’t fight it or change it. But I don’t like having problems in general.”
“And I don’t think it’s ever good news or a positive learning experience when those problems happen and push the team to be more alert in the future. The team must always be alert. This is an environment where you must give your best. There’s no room for failure. So I hate it when I fail, I hate it when something doesn’t work within the team. Because even if you can learn from it and avoid it in the future, it shouldn’t have happened in the first place. We’re all professionals and everything should be under control.”
Finally, he referred to the presence of genius Adrian Newey in Monaco, where he joined the team for the first time, and Alonso admitted it added pressure that could be very positive.
“The truth is it’s always educational to have someone like him, a genius like him, on your side of the garage, seeing the way he works, how he focuses, the questions he asks in meetings, the conclusions he draws, some of the answers we drivers and engineers give. And then when he looks at other cars, we know that what we see at first glance, he sees beyond that.”
Regarding the photo showing Newey observing the McLaren F1 on the starting grid, he continued: “When he sees one part of the car or how a component is designed, maybe on the front wing, he’s already looking at the rear brake duct because he knows where the airflow is going. So it was great for the whole team to have him with us and I think he added a lot of pressure to the team. In Monaco, there was this—not tension because there wasn’t stress from having him there—but everyone was very careful not to make mistakes, because you can’t say something out of place or something that doesn’t make sense. The truth is it was great and we hope to have him at every race next year,” Fernando concluded.
Leave a Reply