Fernando Alonso speaks on things not working out for Aston Martin in F1 2025, and also his first meet with Adrian Newey before the Miami weekend.
The 2025 F1 season has been the worst start for Aston Martin in recent times. Even last year, they managed to score handy points, especially Alonso. But this year, the Spaniard is yet to score when teammate Lance Stroll has managed to put the team on the board at the very least.
Their rivals have upped their game, but Aston Martin hasn’t as per Alonso. The Spaniard knows the team has to up its game, but he hasn’t lost the trust on them knowing that 2026 is a new start. “We are not as competitive as we want to be, we thought we’d be, but I think there is not only one theme,” he said.
“There are a couple of factors that make the car a little bit difficult at the moment, in terms of pace, and maybe not as fast as some of the midfield [teams] that … raised the level and they are closer to the top four, and we didn’t make that step. It is a still long championship.
“We need to react, we need to do things better and hopefully in the next few races we have a step forward, but yeah, it has been more difficult than expected. I never lost the trust. I’m not too worried about next year’s [car]. I think this year is just a continuation of some of the problems that we found in the last two seasons, and we were not able to overcome some of the obstacles that we found.”
In the period between Saudi Arabia and Miami, Alonso had the chance to visit the factory at Silverstone. It was for the first time that he met Newey for the first time since the Brit joined Aston Martin. He recollects what happened during the meet, which he noted was a normal one.
There is less chance of Newey working on the 2025 car, since he feels even the current time is less for him to get everything onboard for 2026. “For next year, with the new regulations and Adrian on board, I think nothing of this year’s car is going to be into next year’s project, so it’s a complete reset, so I’m not too concerned for next year,” continued Alonso.
“And for this year, I think the fix is not as straightforward, and there’s nothing we can do from night to day. I was in the factory, had lunch with Adrian, a couple of talks, but nothing really too much into this year. It was more of a general talk about the team in general and how he felt in these first couple of weeks at Aston, and some of the changes that may happen in the team for a better future under his guidance and his experience.
“Yeah, it’s always exciting to talk to him and to work with him finally, so it was a very nice day. I don’t have the expertise or I don’t have the experience designing cars as he has, and how much it requires and how much time he needs to dedicate. I think he would probably prefer even joining the team one year ago and start in ‘26. So even for the 26 project, I’m sure that he thinks it’s late.
“I understand completely that he needs to focus only on next year’s car, and this year, he didn’t make the car, he didn’t touch the car, he didn’t design the car, so I don’t think it’s up to him to fix the car,” summed up Alonso.
