Fernando Alonso knows Aston Martin may not be a frontrunner in Formula 1 next season, but expects his team to jump forward with the new regulations in 2026.
After a promising start to the 2023 season, when Alonso achieved six podium finishes in the first eight rounds, Aston’s performance relative to its rivals stalled as McLaren surged ahead. It only got two further top-three results that year; none in 2024, with a best result of fifth in Jeddah courtesy of the Spaniard.
The AMR24’s lack of competitiveness led to former Red Bull aerodynamicist Dan Fallows’ removal from the role of technical director.
2025 will be the fourth and last season under the current rule set, with performance gains expected to get smaller and smaller. As a consequence, it seems unlikely that Aston can threaten the now-established top four teams.
Asked if he was prepared to be patient and bide his time for 2026 if Aston were to spend another year in the midfield, Alonso said: “Yes, we will have a lot of wind tunnel hours.”
The two-time F1 world champion is referring to the Aerodynamic Testing Regulations, which allow more wind tunnel runs and more CFD tests for worse-placed teams, based on a sliding scale from first to last place in the constructors’ championship.
As such, Aston will enjoy 864 wind-tunnel runs in the first six months of 2025 compared to 672 only for reigning champions McLaren, before the standings following June’s Austrian Grand Prix are used to establish the new order for the next six months.
The timing is crucial as development for the new-for-2026 technical regulations is allowed from next January. Furthermore, Aston Martin’s new Silverstone campus is close to being fully operational following years of construction, while former Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey and former Ferrari technical director Enrico Cardile will start work with the British outfit early next year.
“Now I think we can reset, we can learn from all the difficulties and mistakes of this year and apply those learnings into next year's project,” Alonso said.
“The new factory is now completed, also the new wind tunnel is going to be open soon. [New group CEO] Andy Cowell has already changed some of the weaknesses that he found in the team, so we have trust on the new management, and I think things are moving in the right direction, so I'm happy for that.
“But in Formula 1 there are not many miracles – you need to be patient, you need to find that sweet spot in the car, you need to find that upgrade that really awakens everything in these ground-effect cars.”
Alonso wants Aston to follow McLaren’s example, as the Woking-based squad propelled itself to the front of the field with one single upgrade package at the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix, which laid the foundations for its title-winning campaign this year.
“They started last and then won races in the mid-season and we need to learn from them,” Alonso insisted. “This is a good example of how things can be done.
“In Austria they introduced a package, they gained six, seven tenths or whatever – and that was the beginning of a series of packages that put their car as the fastest, eventually. So that Austria package, if we want to call it that, is something we need to work on.”
