Alonso Expects Aston Martin to Stay at the Back Until After the Summer Break

• Fernando Alonso says Aston Martin has no upgrades coming before the August break and expects the team’s results to remain the same race after race.
• Neither Alonso nor Lance Stroll has scored a point or escaped Q1 through the first four rounds of 2026.
• The two-time world champion remains unsigned for 2027 but hinted he is leaning toward extending his career another season.

Alonso Braces for Months of the Same Message as Aston Martin Waits on Upgrades

Fernando Alonso is preparing himself for a long stretch of near-identical post-race media sessions, believing Aston Martin will be anchored at the back of the grid until the second half of the season at the earliest.

The heavily funded Aston Martin-Honda project has had a dismal start to 2026. Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll arrived expecting to push toward the front of the championship but have instead spent the opening four rounds fighting the newly entered Cadillac team to avoid being last. Neither driver has scored a point, and neither has progressed beyond Q1 at any race so far.

The Canadian Grand Prix at the end of May is the final round before a run of European races that takes the calendar through to the August summer break. Alonso does not expect the picture to change before then.

When asked whether Montreal would offer a better weekend, Alonso was blunt.

“No, let’s see. I think we will make steps on that drivability point of view. Performance not, so we need to stick together with the team. It’s going to be a very tough, tough race,” he said.

“It’s going to feel repetitive, obviously, we need to face the media every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”

When a journalist in the media pen apologized for the constant questioning, Alonso waved it off.

“No, it’s good and you do your job. We drive fast, but it’s repetitive, the message. We have no upgrades until after summer, so we don’t need to come to Canada [being asked] … What we expect in Canada is the same, what we expect in Austria is the same. That’s the thing that we need to manage, the frustration level from everybody in the team, but I think we are all relaxed.

“We are all committed to, after summer, having a better second half of the year. Let’s see if we can do that.”

Alonso said he is able to stay positive because he understands what the team is up against and why rushing parts to the car would do more harm than good.

“I’m at peace because I understand the situation. The team explained to me that if we bring one or two tenths every race, it doesn’t change our position. We are P20 or P19 and the next car is one second in front.

“So even if we bring two tenths every race, it doesn’t change our position. And it’s a huge stress in the system, in the budget cap and things like that. Until we don’t have one second and a half or two second improvement, it’s better not to press the button in production because we waste money.”

Alonso has not yet signed a deal to continue racing with Aston Martin beyond 2026 but has suggested he is seriously considering extending his career into a 24th Formula 1 season.

When a journalist asked whether any specific result this year, like a fifth-place finish, would automatically convince him to carry on, Alonso laughed.

“If I finish P5 in some race, I will probably retire that afternoon,” he said, before turning and walking out of the media pen.

Written by

Jack Renn

Jack Renn is an editor at F1 Chronicle and a veteran motorsport journalist with 25 years of experience covering Formula 1 and international motorsport. A member of the Association Internationale de la Presse Sportive (AIPS), the global body representing accredited sports journalists, Jack has spent his career reporting from paddocks and press rooms across the F1 calendar. His work spans race analysis, technical insight, and in-depth features, giving readers authoritative coverage grounded in decades of firsthand experience at the highest level of the sport.

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