Battery failure ends Alonso's race early in Barcelona as Aston Martin woes continue

Fernando Alonso was forced to retire from the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix after a battery failure brought his race to a premature end, capping a deeply frustrating weekend for the Aston Martin driver on home soil.

Credit: Formula One

The DNF came as no surprise given the context. Alonso had qualified 22nd and last, outqualified by teammate Lance Stroll for the first time since the 2024 British Grand Prix after a 42-round run. Aston Martin then fitted a fourth MGU-K, energy store and control electronics to his AMR26 overnight, exceeding his seasonal allocation and forcing him to start the race from the pit lane rather than the grid.

On a weekend that carried enormous emotional weight — Alonso had said on Thursday that this was "probably my last Barcelona race in Formula One," given the circuit's rotation off the calendar from 2027 — the car gave him nothing to work with.

Up to his retirement, there were no encouraging signs to report. "It was tough, really no rear grip today in the race and these hot conditions were not helping our performance," he said. When the team called him in, the diagnosis was straightforward. "They told me to stop the car. I just knew that it was a battery problem, so yeah, unfortunately."

What followed was a candid and sobering assessment of where Aston Martin stand, not just this weekend but across the foreseeable future. "I think it's going to be the same case for the next five rounds," Alonso said. "We have no upgrades to the car, so we will struggle a little bit."

It is a situation Alonso has been vocal about all season. He had described the AMR26 as having "the worst engine, very poor energy deployment, gearbox problems and aerodynamic problems" on Saturday.

Aston Martin's hopes are pinned on a revised car arriving in the second half of the year, but Austria in two weeks offers little prospect of relief. "Austria might be a bit better than here and we might be able to get a bit more in the fight," he acknowledged, before adding the caveat that the improvement would be "only a very short relief, just track dependent."

The fans in the grandstands, packed out and almost entirely in green from the first session of the weekend, gave him everything they had. "Alonso quedate" — Alonso, stay — rang around the circuit on Thursday during his appearance at the fan zone. On Sunday he had nowhere near enough car to reward them.