Fernando Alonso continues to impress despite Aston Martin’s disastrous 2026 Formula 1 season
Adrian Newey was undoubtedly the biggest talking point of last season’s Formula 1 driver and technical market. Yet, in only a short time, the legendary British designer has also become one of the major disappointments of the 2026 campaign.
After leaving Red Bull, Adrian Newey decided to join Aston Martin, taking on an enormous role within the Silverstone-based team as Team Principal, Technical Director and shareholder. In many ways, he assumed complete control of a project that was supposed to enter a new era with the arrival of Formula 1’s latest regulations.
The expectation was that 2026 would become Aston Martin’s breakthrough season. Instead, the British team and Adrian Newey appear to have made mistakes in nearly every possible area, producing a deeply flawed car that, combined with the struggling Honda Power Unit, has turned into one of the biggest disappointments on the Formula 1 grid.
A difficult situation for both Aston Martin drivers
The extremely difficult technical situation is also having major consequences for Aston Martin’s drivers. Fernando Alonso is once again dealing with another frustrating season in his long Formula 1 career, while Lance Stroll continues to struggle more and more when it comes to displaying both speed and motivation.
Under pressure, the Canadian driver has also found it increasingly difficult to compete directly against his teammate.
A particularly clear example emerges when analysing qualifying performances, an area where Lance Stroll has now been consistently beaten by Fernando Alonso for almost two full years.
The last time the Canadian managed to qualify ahead of the two-time Formula 1 world champion came on July 6, 2024, when Lance Stroll secured eighth place in Q3 with roughly a three-tenth advantage over Fernando Alonso.
Since that British Grand Prix weekend in 2024, however, the former Williams driver has not managed to start ahead of the Spaniard even once.
And since then, Aston Martin has completed no fewer than 40 Grands Prix.
Fernando Alonso’s unbelievable qualifying record
The Oviedo-born driver has effectively created an unprecedented streak in modern Formula 1 by delivering a remarkable 40-0 qualifying record against his Aston Martin teammate.
It is an extraordinary statistic that has stretched across three different seasons and even survived one of the largest technical regulation revolutions in Formula 1 history, a change that significantly impacted both car characteristics and driving styles.
Despite all the turbulence surrounding Aston Martin, however, one thing appears completely unchanged inside the “green team”: Fernando Alonso’s ability to extract maximum performance every single qualifying session.
The record could very well remain in Formula 1 history for an extremely long time. Over the last four decades, no driver has managed to outperform a teammate in qualifying 40 consecutive times.
It is also difficult to imagine such a streak being repeated in the future, especially considering the constantly expanding Formula 1 calendar, which makes maintaining this level of consistency across so many weekends even more impressive.
Except, it seems, for Fernando Alonso.
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