Alonso: “It’s up to Honda” if Aston Martin races on Sunday
- Bo Helmus
- Mar 7
- 3 min read
Written by Bo Helmus
Aston Martin is experiencing a rocky start to the 2026 Formula One season. They arrived late at the Barcelona Shakedown, were unimpressive in testing and now they’ve announced that the car is causing permanent nerve damage to the drivers. After the three Free Practice sessions in Australia, things haven’t gotten much better for the Silverstone team.
In the first practice session, Fernando Alonso didn’t go out on track at all. His teammate, Lance Stroll, did, but was 30 seconds slower than Charles Leclerc, who was the fastest driver. On Friday afternoon, Alonso managed to come out of his garage and complete 18 laps, but only managed to set the 20th lap time. Stroll drove 13 laps and came in 21st place.
Honda engines haven’t proven to be lucky charms for Alonso throughout his career. When he was asked about the problems in practice, he mentions: “Obviously, we’re still analyzing the data a little bit. We didn’t complete too many laps because of the Honda issue in FP1 and some Honda issues as well in FP2. We still need to catch up a little bit in the rest of the weekend.”
That didn’t go too well for the Aston Martin in the third practice session. The team brought an update for Stroll's car, but they couldn't get his car ready in time for FP3. Alonso did go out on track, but only managed to get 19 laps and an 18th place in between red flags.
“We have a big challenge in front of us, but everyone in the team is embracing the challenge,” the Spaniard says. “We’re trying everything we can to go out of the situation. This is Formula One. Unfortunately, technology is very complex and things require a little bit of time. We are running every day and every week, Grand Prix to Grand Prix.”
The vibrations in the car make the situation for Aston Martin even worse. The drivers can’t race more than 25 laps before they harm themselves permanently. When Alonso was asked about this, he stated: “We [the drivers] are okay to do it [drive the race]. It is up to Honda,” suggesting that the engine is the most unreliable factor in the car.
The media is dragging Aston Martin through the mud because of their poor performances, but the Spaniard doesn’t seem disheartened by it: “We are much less negative than the media and people around. It’s nice to tell the story when someone’s doing great, and when someone is doing wrongly or things are not going well, you try to exaggerate both ends. But we know where we are.
“Maybe we don’t see the progress that we all want to see, but there are things happening. Some are smaller, some bigger, but there is always progress in the team. Let’s hope that’s visible in lap times as soon as possible.”
Let’s hope, indeed, that the mechanics at Aston Martin find a way to end these problems so the drivers can actually compete in the race tomorrow.
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