Fernando Alonso believes Aston Martin has made an encouraging step forward with the AMR26 despite another Q1 elimination at the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix. The Spaniard will start 18th at Zandvoort, ahead of team-mate Lance Stroll, but says the team’s deficit has fallen dramatically and that the car is now much more competitive through the corners. The remaining concern is straight-line performance.
Looking only at the starting grid, Aston Martin’s result appears disappointing. Both cars were eliminated in Q1, with Fernando Alonso taking 18th position. That represents a step backwards from Hungary, where the two-time Formula 1 world champion progressed into Q2, but Alonso believes the underlying level of competitiveness has actually improved because the AMR26 is no longer the slowest car in the field.
Fernando Alonso encouraged by Aston Martin AMR26 progress
Fernando Alonso has rarely hesitated to criticise his teams when he believes performance is insufficient, even during far more successful periods of his career. This time, however, he has taken a more positive view of the changes Adrian Newey and Aston Martin have introduced to the revised car.
The progress follows the substantial development package introduced in Hungary, a specification significant enough to make the AMR26 feel almost like a different car. The extent of that step has already prompted discussion over whether the Hungary package represented the first true Adrian Newey Aston Martin.
“I think there has been a good step forward overall. In the end, we maximised what we had. I think the trajectory of the team and the performance are encouraging. A few races ago we were four and a half seconds away, and now we’re 1.3 seconds from Piastri in Q1.”
“Every step has been in the right direction, but now we have the difficult part: the final 1.5 seconds is the hardest to recover, and that’s what will take time.”
Alonso says Aston Martin is much closer through the corners
The most encouraging aspect for Alonso is the AMR26’s behaviour in the corners. He believes Aston Martin is no longer giving away significant amounts of time there, either against its midfield rivals or even compared with the leading teams.
“It’s a better car, as I also said in Budapest. In the corners, I don’t think we’re losing much compared with anyone. We’re certainly not losing compared with the midfield drivers, but even compared with the top teams.”
“We’re getting closer and closer, but we still have a gap on the straights.”
That straight-line deficit remains significant despite the arrival of Honda’s latest power-unit specification. The manufacturer had been targeting a substantial performance improvement for Zandvoort, with the upgraded Aston Martin-Honda engine aimed at delivering a sizeable power gain.
New Honda engine joins major Aston Martin upgrade programme
Aston Martin effectively introduced an extensively revised car in Hungary given the scale of the aerodynamic changes. Zandvoort then marked the debut of the new engine specification, which had already been tested during a filming day before the summer break.
The Dutch circuit itself presents an unusual technical challenge, combining fast corners with sections where aerodynamic efficiency remains important, as outlined in the 2026 Dutch Grand Prix technical preview.
There are no instant miracles in Formula 1, however. Aston Martin still needs time to understand and optimise the interaction between the revised AMR26 chassis and its latest power-unit developments before it can expect to fight consistently for points.
For Alonso, the important sign is that the direction appears to be correct. Eighteenth on the grid remains far below Aston Martin’s ambitions, but reducing a deficit that had previously reached several seconds while improving the car’s cornering performance gives the team a clearer foundation from which to pursue the final, and most difficult, part of the gap.
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