Fernando Alonso hasn’t been a happy figure in the Formula 1 paddock, and a large reason for that is having the slowest and most difficult car he has ever driven in Formula 1. 

Alonso, a veteran of the sport, won 2 back-to-back World Championships in 2005 and 2006 with Renault, and since then, it has seemed like he’s only driven difficult cars. 25 years on from his F1 debut, Alonso is now in an Aston Martin that is unreliable, overweight, and lacking in performance. 

While all other teams brought major upgrades to Austria, with teams like Cadillac bringing 7-10 new parts reportedly, Alonso was left baffled by the lack of upgrades on the Aston Martin. 

While Alonso said that he felt like all the other teams had money to bring unlimited upgrades, it felt like Aston Martin took about 4 races just to figure out what was wrong with their car. 

However, according to the latest updates provided by team boss Adrian Newey during an interview published on the team’s official website, the Silverstone side will bring an overhauled version of the 2026 car to the Hungarian Grand Prix. 

In the interview, Newey spoke on the upgrades and said, “The main structural elements remain the same-the chassis and gearbox architecture don’t fundamentally change- but we’ve taken weight out of both, which required re-homologating and crash testing the forward chassis.”

Newey added, “The front suspension is unchanged. The rear suspension is slightly revised. We’ve developed a new nose and substantially revised aerodynamic surfaces. So, while the core structure is similar, it’s a big aerodynamic package coupled with significant weight reduction. The target is to get very close to the weight limit.”

Bringing one massive upgrade in the last race before F1’s month-long summer break, Aston Martin aims to see if it is making progress in the right direction. But Newey also pointed to what was going wrong. 

Systems and processes cost Aston Martin initial issues, says Newey

Newey’s extensive interview touched on multiple points, including his health and his clear desire to have Alonso in the car next year. Newey admitted that to retain Alonso, AMR will have to show major progress, which is their current aim, preparing a base for next season. 

When asked what wasn’t working with the system and processes, in the same interview, Newey said, “We were relying on tools and processes that had been patched and bodged for years- you could trace some of them right back to the very early days of Jordan team that was based here in Silverstone, long before Aston Martin returned to the grid.

"At some point, a system that’s just patch-on-patch stops being fit for purpose. That’s where we had to go to.”

Newey said the underlying system was failing, and simple things like ordering parts on time were not happening. But Newey also lauded the efforts of the entire Silverstone team, saying they have all been spending long nights looking to get things right, and the results should show. 

Jordan was a team that operated from 1991 to 2005. If quick fixes have been applied for over 30 years now, that means there was an underlying issue with the Silverstone unit that showed up in a massive way this season.

Newey hopes that things are on the correct path now, and so do F1 fans because they want to see Fernando Alonso stick around for longer.

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Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason