Alonso hopes Aston Martin can improve "when the new car arrives"
Originally published by F1Technical
Fernando Alonso’s first home race of the season at the Circuit de Barcelona‑Catalunya turned into one of the most difficult qualifying sessions of his Formula 1 career, as Aston Martin slumped to the very back of the grid and failed even to beat newcomers Cadillac.
The team’s chronic lack of pace — already evident throughout practice — was compounded by mechanical issues, leaving Alonso 22nd and Lance Stroll 21st in a deeply frustrating afternoon for the Silverstone outfit.
The two‑time world champion did not hide his disappointment. Speaking to Spanish media, Alonso was unusually blunt about the scale of Aston Martin’s problems and the repetitive nature of their struggles.
“We opted for this strategy, we repeat every weekend, and we will arrive in Austria in two weeks and we will be last in qualifying, and you will tell me if that exposes some of the weaknesses of the car,” he said, making clear that the team’s current approach is simply not competitive.
Pressed further, Alonso’s frustration spilled over. “We repeat the same thing every weekend. It’s exhausting. We’re last, we know it, and we have no problem admitting it,” he said.
The Spaniard emphasised that the team is effectively waiting for the second half of the season, when a major upgrade package — including a new chassis — is expected to arrive.
“We’re waiting for the second half of the season, and hopefully when the new car arrives, we can improve a bit. It’s all becoming very repetitive.”
Alonso then delivered his most damning assessment yet of the AMR26’s weaknesses. “We have a very poor engine, the worst one. We have very poor energy deployment. We have gearbox problems and aerodynamic problems. We’re working on all of it, and hopefully in the second half of the season we can give people something to cheer about.”
On track, the issues were plain to see. Alonso struggled with downshifting problems throughout qualifying, making the car unpredictable and difficult to control.
His final time — a 1:18.815 — left him last of all, even behind Stroll, who himself had run wide into the gravel at one stage. “There are no surprises that we qualified at the back as we know this is our level of car performance right now,” Alonso said.
“We had downshifting issues and it was very difficult to drive the car in each Qualifying lap. It’s always special to drive in front of the Spanish fans though and thanks to them for their amazing support over the weekend.”