Fernando Alonso has delivered a promising update on Aston Martin’s progress despite a dismal qualifying session for the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix.
Honda is under pressure this weekend at Suzuka to perform in front of its home crowd, an impossible task given the scale of its performance and reliability woes.
These continued unabated, with Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll slowest of all in qualifying, losing out to both Cadillacs.
But beneath the numbers, progress could be found, as both cars took part in qualifying without reliability concerns.
Although disappointed with the overall pace of the AMR26, Alonoso took solace in the work being undertaken at Aston Martin and Honda.
“Yeah, obviously on the positive side, yes, that’s true,” he said of the reliability breakthrough to media, including Motorsport Week..
“We are running without too many issues the last two weekends. But obviously in terms of performance, we are at the back.So, yeah, it’s not really, you know, you don’t find any satisfaction, you know, when you are not competitive.
“But, you know, we try to stay together, to stay strong and give time, you know, to both factories to fix the situation. They are working flat out
“There are a couple of improvements, a couple of ideas. But in Formula One, it doesn’t happen from night to day. And you need to spend a few months, I guess, with the current car.
“You know, we will not change too many things on this car if we know that, you know, it will change completely in a few months’ time. So, you know, that’s the situation we have”.
Fernando Alonso outlines timeline for improvement
Alonso then outlined the timeline for Aston Martin to see visible on track improvements in performance, citing McLaren’s remarkable turnaround in 2023.
“I think a couple of months,” he confirmed. “We saw the McLaren in 2023, they were last in the first couple of races and they eventually, you know, were at the front at the end of the year.
“Maybe that’s too optimistic.That’s a dream scenario. But in a way, we know that the season is long. And if you understand the problems and you fix them, you have plenty of time to do a second part of the year or the last third of the championship in a much better position.And that’s what we are working on.”
Finishing the race however, is still a pipe dream in the eyes of the Spainard, with a sobering take on his chances of achieving this in the race.
“Yeah, I think it’s still the biggest limiting factor,” he said. “Yesterday, to be honest, the car felt completely normal. Nearly no vibrations.So I was very positive. This morning I jumped in the car and I had the same vibrations as ever. And we didn’t change anything.”
“So I mean, that was a little bit difficult to understand. So we are going through all the changes we did overnight to make sure that there is something yesterday on the car that is helping the vibrations. So it seems a little bit of a random thing.So let’s see tomorrow if we have a lucky day.”
Alonso outlining in public when the situation may improve at Aston Martin, and praising his team will help morale at the team and Honda massively. Honda’s home race on the other hand, looks to be write off in 2026.
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