Fernando Alonso hopes Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll will enjoy the upcoming 2026 Formula 1 regulations reset amid his initial apprehension about the new cars.

Next year will see F1 completely revamp the formula with lighter, nimble cars, a 50-50 hybrid power unit, and other additions such as active aero and narrower profiled Pirelli tires.

And while the sport has claimed that these changes will lead to closer racing and a tighter pack, many drivers have raised concerns about driveability and overall performance.

Stroll is no different. The Aston Martin driver revealed that his first impressions of the 2026 cars on the simulator have left him concerned about driving at fast, flowing circuits.

“For us drivers, for sure, I think these kinds of tracks, Spa, Suzuka, you know, high speed, less downforce, it’s not going to be as exciting as what it is now,” he had told media including Motorsport Week.

“That’s just a fact until maybe a couple of years into the regs or whatever, I don’t know.

“But, it’s going to be a hit in downforce, and we’re going to be sliding around more than what we are now.”

What does Alonso think about the 2026 cars?

Alonso also revealed that he had gotten an opportunity to test the 2026 car on the simulator for the Silverstone-based team.

The two-time World Champion concurred with his team-mate about the lack of downforce compared to the ground effects car, but erred on the side of caution.

“I only did one day in the simulator, and it was difficult to really take any conclusions of that,” he asserted.

The 44-year-old said that he will make up his mind only after testing the real car out on the track, but hopes that the result will change his team-mate’s mind.

“So, I will wait a little bit longer, or maybe even to test a real car, because sometimes in the simulator, you have a feeling, and then on the real car you have a different one,” he continued.

“Yeah, it’s less performance than this year. Every time a racing driver tests something that is slower, [they] will never like [it].

“But then we go in a rental car, with 12 horsepower, and we love it [laughs]. When we are all together, you know, and you fight and you win the race and it’s like you win the championship.

“So yeah, if next year you are fast, we will love the cars. And hopefully Lance can enjoy next year. That will be good news.”

READ MORE – Motorsport Week’s F1 2025 Mid-Season Driver Rankings

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Fernando Alonso admitted that Aston Martin’s torrid Miami Grand Prix outing provided the most glaring indication of how much the team has regressed in Formula 1.

Aston Martin’s bruising start to 2025 reached a nadir last weekend as a double Q1 exit preceded Alonso and Lance Stroll coming home as the last classified finishers.

Alonso going a lap down marked a harrowing contrast to his maiden trip to the circuit with the side in 2023, when he completed the top three behind the Red Bull duo.

That came during a run that included six podiums in eight races, but Aston Martin’s alarming decline since has culminated in Alonso remaining scoreless this season.

Alonso believes Aston Martin’s performance was even worse than the result suggested, as he’s certain he’s now operating on a stronger level than when he took third.

“It says that we have some difficulties ahead, for sure, and some pace to find,” Alonso told media including Motorsport Week post-race.

“We were two years ago fighting for podium here, so I was one of the quickest, I had a pink last sector (the fastest time in that sector). 

“We were reviewing yesterday some of that thing, and we’re still the same, or a higher level, because as I said, a performance like this morning [in the Sprint race] and yesterday qualifying probably are a little bit higher than 2023, that I’m still adapting to the car and to the team back then.

“And we are on the other side of the field, so there is something that we need to understand and work harder, but we try to be united and do it all together.”

Alonso, though, dismissed that the British marque’s disastrous showing at the Miami International Autodrome induced a more painful experience than previous races.

“No, I think the weekends have been very similar to be honest,” he reasoned.

“We’ve been always with some challenges, but qualifying normally gets a bit better than expected, so we started a little bit higher than what we should be.

“Then we take some DRS trains and we follow those cars, some contacts, some mistakes and we keep always finishing in a reasonable position, P11 in Japan and things like that.

“I think we’ve been, as I said yesterday, using three sets of tyres in Q1, all these kind of things that shows that we are in some difficulty.

“We are not giving up, Imola is next, and we know that we need to get better.”

Alonso urges Aston to maximise opportunities

Alonso rued Aston Martin not listening to his desire to pit as the track dried during the weekend’s earlier Sprint, costing what he suspected was a possible third place.

The Spaniard has stressed the Silverstone-based squad must capitalise on such opportunities to earn results that it can’t achieve on merit with the car’s current pace.

Asked whether points were attainable on weekends where Aston Martin nails the set-up, Alonso replied: “No, I don’t think so. Japan, P11; Jeddah was nearly perfect.

“Yesterday, as I said, I think we have three or four opportunities in the year where chaos is happening and you have the possibility to score points.

“There were three already this year, one in Australia, I had the mistake and I went on the gravel and off.

“It happened in China with three or four cars disqualifying, and I had the brakes on fire in lap one.

“Yesterday, the track was for dry tyres and we kept with the Inters for too long.

“We missed three opportunities to score points in my case, and I think it’s going to be one or two more in the season. Let’s hope not to miss those ones.”

Alonso unsure on improvements to AMR25

Alonso remained evasive when quizzed on whether Aston Martin has developments coming that could elevate the team into a more competitive position this season.

“I’m trying to do my best behind the wheel, but this is a good question for our managers,” the two-time F1 champion remarked.

“They know what is in the pipeline, they work really hard, we support them.

“But we cannot talk about the technicality of the car and the upgrades because we are not in the loop every week.”

READ MORE – How Aston Martin is aiming to avoid repeating F1 2024 development ‘chaos’

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Fernando Alonso has revealed his plan for future qualifying sessions after Max Verstappen’s one-place grid drop in last weekend’s Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix.

The Dutchman set the fastest lap time last weekend in qualifying at the Lusail International Circuit before his later penalty bumped him back down to second.

The stewards determined that Verstappen had impeded Mercedes’ George Russell whilst both drivers were on out laps building towards their final runs in Q3.

Verstappen argued but to no avail as the decision stood, prompting fans and media alike to be left puzzled by the outcome of the investigation.

However, out of the bizarre punishment has come a revelation for two-time F1 champion Alonso, who has vowed to exploit the regulations to the maximum.

“I only read the news that it was a one-place penalty for, I don’t know,” Alonso told media including Motorsport Week.

“He was slow, but George was on a slow lap as well.

“So in Abu Dhabi, if I’m in a slow lap, I will push crazy to the car in front to have penalty I guess, if he’s impeding me.”

Alonso sympathises with new F1 race director

Despite all the controversy surrounding Verstappen’s penalty, Alonso took the time to applaud the new race director, Rui Marques, for the job he has done to date.

He acknowledged: “I think they have a tough race here.

“They’ve been monitoring F2 and F1 in the same weekend, and they still do a good job.

“It’s only the second race for the race director – so far, I think he’s doing a very good job.”

Alonso finished seventh in Qatar, his first points finish in four races after he capitalised on penalties, punctures and retirements ahead to finish inside the top 10.

When asked about the race, Alonso reviewed: “Sunday for us, a lot of points, six points for the team, P7.

“It’s better than we anticipated, we capitalized on some of the action in front of us, some DNFs, some penalties.

“We were ready there to take the opportunity and [I am] happy for that.”

READ MORE: Fernando Alonso didn’t become ‘slow from day to night’ amid Qatar Q3 appearance

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Fernando Alonso revealed his frustrations with the media after Aston Martin’s recent struggles in Qualifying for the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The Spanish driver was knocked out in Q1 after setting a lap time that was only good enough for 17th.

His team-mate Lance Stroll qualified 20th after an energy recovery system failure limited his running in Qualifying.

Aston Martin has failed to score points in the last three races and the team reverted back to an older specification from the Japanese Grand Prix in Brazil in an attempt to fix its issues.

However, Alonso expressed how the media was more of a nuisance rather than any of his troubles with the car.

“The most frustrating part for me is the media, nothing against you,” he told select media including Motorsport Week.

“It’s just the part of the weekend that we try to explain to the fans and to you guys why we are here but we are here and in Qatar we will be here and in Abu Dhabi we will be here.

“So when we have to come through the media staff, it’s like a little bit of a surprise that we need to explain ourselves why we are here.

“Because it’s not that we were in the podium in the last race and now we are out of Q1.

“So we approach the weekends knowing our position, accepting our position.

“Not happy with it, let’s be clear but we cannot be frustrated just being in this position.

“I think the hope for next year and for 2026 is there and the team is just building the momentum with the new people and the new factory and everything.

“So we need to be patient now and we need to accept that it will take a little bit of time.”

Alonso: ‘I don’t expect any miracles’

Aston Martin scored 280 points in 2023 and achieved eight podiums in its best season since the team rebranded back in 2021.

This year, the team still resides in fifth place in the Constructors’ Standings but on only 86 points.

Speaking about if the team expected to struggle this weekend Alonso added: “Yeah, a bit expected because in the last four or five months, I think after the summer break, we’ve been uncompetitive generally.

“So going out of Q1 is not that easy a task at the moment for us, with the improved Williams, Haas, we seem to fall in that position.

“Our fight at the moment is a little bit too much at the back.

“We are racing with a very old spec car from the beginning of the year so I think we are lacking performance from our car.

“And all the others, they did improve, so the combination of the two is the perfect storm in terms of position to be at the back.

“But, you know, let’s see tomorrow, obviously, it has been a difficult weekend and I don’t expect any miracles.”

Stroll’s Qualifying hindered by ERS failure

An ERS failure in FP3 impacted the Stroll’s qualifying session as he could only set one timed lap.

“Yeah, we did what we could,” he said.

“It’s a great effort from the team to get the car ready, but yeah, not much of a session for us, just that one lap at the end.

It’s been tough all weekend, I mean nothing new, It’s been tough for the last couple, few months.

“Yeah, we only had one lap at the end, so it was like, we had like five minutes.

“We got the car ready with like five, I think even less, like four minutes to go.

“So, it was a great effort from everyone and yeah, limited qualifying session.”

READ MORE: Fernando Alonso backs Lance Stroll to ‘change the opinion of many people’

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Eddie Jordan says that Fernando Alonso’s Formula 1 form is “nowhere near” the level the Spaniard would expect, following a difficult first half of the season.

Jordan passed comment on Alonso’s performance during the Formula For Success podcast with David Coulthard, as the pair discussed the ongoing struggles of Sergio Perez.

Reflecting on Perez’s poor Belgian Grand Prix performance, Coulthard remarked that “time stands still for no man” when it comes to performance in the sport, suggesting the Mexican may have “turned the page.”

“Tell me anyone that has gone for a long career that has just been getting better and better?” he remarked.

“You see that exactly with Alonso where, at the beginning of the year, he was awesome,” Jordan replied.

“At the moment, I’d have to look to see where he ends up and whether he’s actually in the top 10 or not.

“As it happens he drove well yesterday [in Belgium], dragged more points for Aston, but at the same time he’s nowhere near the level he thinks he can be at.”

Alonso is driving his 21st season in Formula 1, an unparalleled tenure in the sport.

He has come close to emulating his early Championship-winning years with Renault, most obviously during his time at Ferrari, however has since languished in the midfield at McLaren, Alpine, and latterly Aston Martin.

The 2023 season showed immense promise for Aston Martin. The team finished fifth in the Constructors Championship with 280 points, Alonso securing eight podiums in the process.

In 2024, the team has looked a far cry from the potential it showed early last year, with Alonso’s P5 in Saudi Arabia his highest finish of the year.

Jordan believes it’s a struggle that weighs heavily on Alonso, particularly in contrast to Lewis Hamilton’s recent success.

“Because, for him in his mind, he’s every bit as good as Lewis [Hamilton].

“He expected to be able to fight with Lewis this year and to be honest, that hasn’t happened and you can’t see it happening for the remainder of this year.

“So I also think about, psychologically, what goes on in these guy’s heads.”

Ahead of the summer break, Aston Martin has admitted its 2024 car is “more difficult to drive” than its predecessor, Alonso describing it as unpredictable and inconsistent.

Alonso believes the team’s remaining races will be vital in establishing the development path of the car for 2025.

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Fernando Alonso has asserted Aston Martin won’t “rest” until the team is back fighting at the sharp end in Formula 1 amid a challenging Austrian Grand Prix weekend.

Aston Martin experienced another tumultuous session as Alonso qualified as the slowest driver in Q2 in 15th spot, while team-mate Lance Stroll was eliminated in Q1.

But Alonso, who underlined last weekend that Aston Martin must “talk less”, has insisted the Silverstone-based squad won’t relent in its bid to recapture its 2023 form.

Alonso lagged behind Stroll during the Sprint sessions but credited the turnaround on his side of the garage to extensive changes to his AMR24 car prior to qualifying.

The Spaniard divulged that the modifications were so wholesale that the mechanics “didn’t even have time for lunch” in order to ensure that the tweaks were finalised.

“Since the Sprint race ended, we’ve changed the whole car,” Alonso said. “The mechanics didn’t have even time for lunch.

We now went out for qualifying and we tried again.

“We’re still more or less in the same position. So it’s not a problem of setup. It’s fundamentally we don’t have the pace.

“There’s no rest until we are better and until we are fighting for positions at the front.

“And until that moment comes, it’s time to suffer on track and to cheer all the team cause we are going through difficult moments”

Aston Martin is awaiting the next upgrade package to arrive – scheduled to be the Hungarian Grand Prix next month – and Alonso is expecting a decent step forward.

But looking ahead to the race in Austria coming up, Alonso is anticipating it being difficult to make inroads towards the points positions from 15th place on the grid.

“I think it’s going to be difficult. I think to win the points at the moment is maybe not the position we deserve. So we just need help from the others in front,” he added.

“That may happen. This is Austria. Maybe a lot of things will happen [during the race].

“We need to stay focused. We need to see the chequered flag. And hopefully, the last few points will be on our table.”

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Red Bull suspects that both McLaren and Ferrari have been running Formula 1 front wings that flex beyond the limits imposed by the FIA and threaten to do the same.

According to a recent report from the German outlet Auto Motor und Sport, Red Bull is “more openly” pointing “the finger” at McLaren and Ferrari’s front wing designs.

The article states that Mercedes also suspects something is going on with the front wings, but has elected not to protest and follow the same path as its competitors.

AMuS claims Mercedes’ new front wing belongs to the “legally bent” front wings group and could be a key part of the German squad’s strong recent outing in Canada.

The publication also deciphers that this has not been a pure performance gain but has also been an improvement in terms of balancing the car and driver confidence.

“If this is further tolerated, we have to go the same way,” AMuS quoted Red Bull.

Front wings are loaded with 60 newtons and must not deform more than three millimeters, but the teams strive to pass the FIA tests whilst also pushing boundaries.

Mercedes accused Red Bull of featuring a rear wing that flexed too much and translated into a big advantage on straight-line speed during the teams’ 2021 title battle.

More recently, during last season, Aston Martin was reportedly obliged to change its front wing over FIA concerns about the design being against the spirit of the rule.

The change coincided with the Silverstone-based squad enduring a massive dip in competitiveness as it went from consistent podium finishes to minor points scorers.

AMuS claims that Red Bull tried to convince Aston Martin to also protest Ferrari and McLaren, but the British marque has opted to decline and work on its own solution.

Ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix last season, the FIA introduced a TD018 technical regulation to limit the flexi-wings following concerns that the teams were using this to gain aerodynamic advantages.

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Fernando Alonso doesn’t expect the Aston Martin Formula 1 team to enact a quick turnaround to the regression in competitiveness it has experienced in recent races.

Aston Martin started last season as Red Bull’s closest rival and a regular podium scorer, but the team was unable to sustain that momentum and slipped to fifth place.

Despite introducing the most upgrades among all F1 teams in 2024, Aston Martin has not reduced the gap to the leading quartet and instead drifted back towards RB.

Alonso has not advanced past Q1 or scored points since Aston Martin brought a sizeable update package to Imola, with suspicions the AMR24 is now harder to drive.

The Spaniard has asserted that recent rounds have been a “wake-up call” and a “crucial” experience as the Silverstone-based squad prepares for the 2025 regulations.

“These two weekends have been crucial to understand our weaknesses, to understand the car, to improve,” Alonso said after finishing outside the points in Monaco.

“In the difficulties, you always draw more conclusions than in the victories, so we are learning a lot I think for the rest of the year, 2025 and 2026.

“These two races have been a big wake-up call and it will be very good for us.”

The two-time champion doesn’t expect a fast turnaround, explaining that it will take “a few races” for his team to bring his next notable performance upgrade package.

Nonetheless, Alonso also revealed that Aston Martin will keep bringing small innovations to almost each race weekend, including Canada and his home race in Spain.

“[We had] some doubts after Imola and in Monaco that we didn’t manage to go fast, and we have to try to change this trend,” he added.

“It will take us a few races until we introduce a significant improvement in the car, but until then we have to give everything and we have to improve on the track to get the results.

“There will be better days, worse days and we have to be united.”

Alonso rued Aston Martin going “back to the midfield instead of the front runners” but remains hopeful that an effective upgrade on his AMR24 can transform matters.

“All in all difficult weekend, obviously you learn a lot from the difficulties so that’s what we try to do but tough one…

[It’s] obviously not ideal, the current form, we seem to go back to the midfield instead of looking at the front runners.

“But these things can change quickly, we saw with many other examples how quickly things can change, a good upgrade on the car and you can move five or six positions, so that is what we want to do on the next one and we work hard on that direction.”

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Williams Formula 1 team principal James Vowles has insisted that the sport’s current ground effect regulations are not a failure despite drivers facing increasing difficulty circulating in traffic.

The current regulations, introduced in 2022, sought to make it easier for drivers to follow each other in dirty air, thereby making overtaking opportunities easier to come by.

While that had initially been the case, three years of developments and upgrades have contributed to growing driver complaints of difficulty following in the wake of those ahead.

F1’s next regulation reset is due to commence in 2026. While the specifics are yet to be confirmed, dirty air and current overtaking struggles are to be addressed.

Recently, Mercedes Technical Director James Allison said that he believed F1’s most recent attempt to control dirty air through regulation changes had been ‘tested to destruction’.

However, asked for his opinion on the matter, Williams team principal James Vowles disagreed with his former colleague, saying: “I don’t think the regulations have failed.

“I think that would be wholeheartedly unfair. I think the competition is pretty tight in the midfield. There is overtaking that takes place.

“I think even on the data that we can see now, it’s still better than the ‘21, ‘20 generations of cars. But especially the leading pack have developed the car in an extraordinary way that as you develop downforce, it is making it harder to follow,” he explained.

“But I still think on all the metrics and all the data we can see, you’re now getting closer than you were before as a result of things, which was an intention behind it.

“Whether they will improve in ‘25, no, I don’t think so. There’s no reason to think it will improve next year. And in ‘26, again, the rules are still being ratified as we speak, so it’s hard to evaluate that.”

Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack agreed with his Williams counterpart, adding: “I think the regulations are not a fail at all.

“I think it has allowed various designs from the beginning, then obviously a dominance that none of us want, but that’s a fact.”

The return to ground effect machinery has seen Red Bull and Max Verstappen emerge as a dominant force in F1, breaking record after record en route to a third title for the Dutchman in 2023.

“All in all, I think we have one more year to go,” Krack continued. “And then we welcome the new [regulations]. As James said, they’re not 100% fixed yet, and we look forward to them.

“But honestly, I think the current regulations are well done and well made, and we have had great racing behind one team.

“I think the target is to have the first set of regulations by the end of June and then we will move from there.

“Probably they will not be complete or fully complete, but I think it’s important to have regulations early because it’s really a big change for everybody.

“And so we need to see how is the weight target, how is the architecture of the car? What is the tyre size? A lot is still being discussed. So we should not delay too much.”

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Aston Martin technical director Dan Fallows believes that the team has made a “strong improvement” with its 2024 Formula 1 challenger.

The Silverstone-based squad surprised the field when it emerged as a front-running force in the early stages of the 2023 season.

Two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso stormed to six podium finishes in the opening eight rounds. However, development of the AMR23 stalled with a series of compromised upgrades seeing the team slump from second to fifth in the championship despite two further podiums from the Spaniard.

2024 has welcomed several major concept changes amongst rivals, but Aston Martin has focused on an evolution of the fast-starting AMR23 as the team hopes to secure its place in the top order.

“When we went into this season really looking for a step over the winter, we wanted to make sure we did get an improvement,” said Aston Martin technical director Dan Fallows.

“Even though it’s an evolution of last year’s car, we wanted it to be a strong improvement as well as a strong evolution. And, we have seen that step, we’ve seen that benefit. So we’re very pleased about that.

“I think the most important thing for us is where we go from here. We weren’t 100% pleased with what we achieved in our in-season development last year. And we wanted to make sure we can compete at the top level in terms of in-season as well.

“I think we were mostly keen on making sure we made a step on last year, which we have done. So I think we can certainly tick that box.”

Speaking at the launch of the AMR24, Alonso asserted that his team needed to find improvements in top-end speed and downforce for high-speed cornering.

“We had some things that we focused on over the winter in terms of making the car good to drive, making the balance good,” Fallows said in response when asked about Alonso’s hopes.

“And I think we’re reasonably happy with where we are now. We know we’ve always got things to improve, which is why we go back into the wind tunnel and why we go back to the drawing board to do those things.

“But so far, I think we’ve achieved a lot in three days [of] testing, done a lot of test items, and we’re pretty pleased with the outcome.”

Team principal Mike Krack was also pleased with his team’s pre-season running, saying: “It was a very, very good test for us. Three days, I think the only interruptions we had was with the red flags.

“I think we can be quite happy. The car was in a really good state when it arrived here, very reliable, high-quality parts.

“We could do all of our work that we had scheduled to every day. Now, it’s about digging, getting through the whole days to understand all the results that we have achieved, and we’re looking forward to go to the first race.”

Asked where he expects the team to sit in the pecking order, Krack replied cautiously: “We need to look into the next days, get all the full analysis, and it will be over the next days that we get a clearer picture as well.

“I think it was quite important for us that we look at ourselves, we have quite a big programme, and we cannot influence anyway what others are doing. And now it’s about the analysis, and also trying to understand what others did.

“If you go through the full range of track conditions, fuel loads, engine modes, tyres, we had all the five tyre specs here, I think you can cover a range of five seconds. To then discern who’s ahead by how much I think it’s really, really tough.”

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