Fernando Alonso has now identified an Aston Martin problem that Adrian Newey could easily solve

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Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso had a frustrating weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix.

After the first two practice sessions at Zandvoort, it looked like Aston Martin were the best of the rest behind McLaren.

Fernando Alonso set a quicker time than eventual race winner Oscar Piastri on Friday, although Lance Stroll had a more difficult day on the other side of the garage.

David Coulthard called Stroll’s mistakes in practice and qualifying unforgivable after his engineers broke curfew to fix his car following a huge crash in FP2, only to put it in the barriers again on Saturday.

Alonso’s pace disappeared in qualifying, and despite looking like a potential candidate for the second row at Zandvoort, he ended up starting 10th.

Incredibly, despite his mistake and starting from the back of the grid, Stroll finished P7, with Alonso directly behind him.

The two-time world champion was furious on the team radio, and Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack has identified why their pace dropped off over the course of the race weekend.

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Fernando Alonso frustrated by Aston Martin change at the Dutch Grand Prix

Adrian Newey has arrived at Aston Martin from Red Bull and is working solely on their 2026 F1 car.

Newey has identified one area Aston Martin have been struggling with, and while he’s not actively working on this year’s car, he’s having conversations with those who are all the time.

Alonso said on the grid before Sunday’s race: “On Friday night, we had to make changes to the car. We couldn’t maintain those speeds; we had to make it worse to finish the race. That’s why those two or three tenths [were lost].”

Krack then explained to Mundo Deportivo exactly what the problem was and said: “F1 cars have bottom plank wear, and you have to comply with the regulations after the race.

“So you’re only allowed to wear 1mm off that plate. We didn’t do many laps on Friday. Lance had an accident, and Fernando didn’t do many laps on the long run.

“So you’re in a bit of uncharted territory when it comes to plate wear, so you have to take a bit of a conservative approach. We had to, and that cost us a bit of performance.

“Were we unsure? Yes, because you need to do long laps to know what the wear is going to be like.

“And if you don’t do those laps, then you don’t know. So you have to take a slightly more conservative approach.”

Red Bull have had plenty of issues recently, but plank wear has never been one of them.

Newey is an aerodynamic expert, and if he had started studying Aston Martin’s 2025 car upon arriving at the team, there’s no doubt that this is a problem he could have solved.

READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin managing technical partner Adrian Newey

Mike Krack explains why Fernando Alonso was ‘angry with us’ after the Dutch Grand Prix

Alonso couldn’t believe that Stroll managed to finish ahead of him, with Aston Martin getting caught out by the timings of the safety cars and not nailing the Spaniard’s strategy.

Krack explained after the race: “Yes, he was angry with the race, he was angry with the world, he was angry with us, he’s angry with everyone.

“We can’t do anything in these situations. We have to accept it as it is and try to find the best solution with the new limiting conditions.

“The conditions have changed. Now you have this. And others could stop ahead.”

Alonso is constantly learning from Newey, and there’s the potential for it to be a championship-winning combination next year.

However, Aston Martin need to find a way to make their updates work more regularly, which has been the fundamental issue that has seen Alonso go from a regular podium finisher to trying to sneak into the points.