Fernando Alonso remains optimistic about Aston Martin’s progress after another tricky Formula 1 race weekend in Austria, which included yet another early exit in qualifying.
The Spaniard and his teammate Lance Stroll once again made up the back row of the grid in P21 and P22, respectively – not only around 3 seconds away from Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Q1 benchmark, but also almost a second off the pace of the Cadillacs in P19 and P20.
However, Alonso shared a positive message on his radio after his elimination, saying it was a ‘good lap’ and that they were ‘getting closer’.
When asked after the session about the message he was trying to convey, the 44-year-old joked that he sees driver radios as private conversations.
“Of course, I think all the radio messages are private conversations, as we always said,” he told media, including Motorsport Week.
“And I think inside the team we faced some challenges this weekend, maybe with the altitude, a different track, very thirsty on energy.
“Since FP1, I think we made huge steps on drivability, on gearbox, downshift, upshift, and energy consistency. I think the deployment has been a little bit inconsistent for the first part of the year, so we got to qualifying, on every lap you have a different speed on the straights and approaching to the corners.
“And I think we put a lot of emphasis here to improve that, and I think it was the first quali of the year that I had the same deployment all three laps, and that allowed me to push the limits in the corner, because I knew the approaching speed to the next corner.”
Fernando Alonso confirms that ‘no one is giving up‘
He went on to praise the team for the work going on behind the scenes, explaining that despite their poor on-track performance, they are still putting a lot of effort into improving the car.
“I think the steps we did since FP1 to quali, they were very encouraging,” he said. “And we are at the back of the grid, even Cadillac, our closest rival made a big step here with upgrades. But the team is still working like if we were fighting for points or podiums, so behind the scenes this is important.
“It’s very [easy] to get demotivated when you are last every weekend, but on the team, no one is giving up, and they are working to improve the car every session.
“So from the team, from the driver point of view, it gives you that motivation as well to don’t give up, because they are not giving up. So that’s probably what I meant today, because it was positive to see the improvements that we were able to make from FP1 to quali.”
Unlike his teammate, Alonso has scored a single point in the 2026 season so far but will be hoping to add more to that tally if the upwards trajectory of the Aston Martin’s performance continues.
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