Fernando Alonso is not sure if his style and experience will help him with the 2026 F1 car, as he would want to use his brain to win and not finish P6 or P7.
No matter the car, Aston Martin’s Alonso has always been a smart cookie in F1 races. He does things which others cannot think of in races and often the rivals are left clueless after the grand prix. Any given car, the Spaniard manages to showcase his smartness and experience.
With F1 2026 bring a fresh start, his experience will be valuable. Even though it is a new start for all, but considering that he has seen regulation changes before, it will help in a relatively smoother switch. For now, Alonso isn’t sure how the new regulation will feel like and what can he do with his experience.
One thing he wants is to use his brain to secure wins or podiums than finish sixth or seventh. He would love to not use his brain to extract a result and finish in a dominant fashion. “I don’t know, it depends, obviously, you always can play a little bit with the tools you have in your hands,” said Alonso to media.
“In 2025, because the cars were more difficult to follow, if you’re qualifying well, you can keep cars behind. Even if you don’t have pace, as you saw in Qatar probably, it’s not that I want to have 15 cars behind. I would love to be 5 seconds margin. Like this, I stop and I don’t have any cars behind.
“But I cannot pull away from cars. You use your experience in different ways, in different corners, to make sure that you are not overtaken. So next year, it could be the same thing with the energy deployment, that you can use it here and there and have unexpected results.
“But you cannot be proud to finish 7th or 6th by using your brain 200%. I prefer not using my brain and win all the races with 20 seconds,” summed up Alonso, who will start another season in F1, as he nears to the end of his career with probably a couple more left.
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