Fernando Alonso just made one ‘miracle’ claim that demonstrates how hard Adrian Newey’s job is at Aston Martin

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For the first time since 2017, Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso hasn’t scored a point during the opening three race weekends of a Formula 1 season.

That year, Fernando Alonso was driving for McLaren and only scored 17 points all season.

It was a really difficult campaign for the 43-year-old, and just a year later, he walked away from Formula 1 to concentrate on other projects before returning with Alpine in 2021.

Aston Martin signed Alonso two years later, and suddenly, he was the best of the rest behind the dominant Red Bull cars.

He scored eight podiums that season, but things have slowly got worse for the team over the past two campaigns, with chairman Lawrence Stroll investing millions to try and help Aston Martin climb up the constructors’ championship once again.

Aston Martin now have a state-of-the-art factory and new wind tunnel, and Adrian Newey heads the list of staff members Stroll has brought in to make the team a competitive force.

Newey is concentrating on Aston Martin’s 2026 car, but the latest comments from Alonso after the Japanese Grand Prix will make him fully understand the size of the task ahead of him.

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Fernando Alonso claims 2025 Japanese Grand Prix was one of his ‘best’ F1 displays

Alonso was interviewed by DAZN after the race in Japan and explained: “The truth is, we’re not fast enough to be in the top 10. I guess we’re not even fast enough to be in the top 18. So 11th is a small miracle.”

“Because, as I say, the car felt quite average the whole race. There wasn’t much grip.

“We changed tyres to protect ourselves a bit from Tsunoda, try to stay 11th and then if something happened you get points.

“But if I hadn’t stopped on that lap, I would have dropped to 12th or 13th, and we have the slowest car on the straights, so if I drop further back, then I can’t overtake anyone on the straights. We were a bit in a spiral that was difficult to get out of.

“As I say, it’s going to be a completely anonymous race. Nobody will remember, as I always say sometimes, the 11th place at Suzuka in 2025, but it’s undoubtedly one of my best races for me personally.

“I think I got the most out of the car and a little more, right? And that always leaves a good taste in your mouth, but the result is what it is, and you have to accept it.”

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Fernando Alonso previews ‘very difficult’ Bahrain Grand Prix in search of his first point

Alonso only overtook Pierre Gasly during Sunday’s race, thanks to the Frenchman’s slow pit stop, but P11 is still his best result of the season.

Meanwhile, Lance Stroll already has 10 points this year, but finished dead last after qualifying P20 in Japan.

Newey is taking on the task of turning a midfield car at best into a world beater and has less than 12 months to do so.

Alonso’s suggestion that his performance on Sunday was one of the best of his career suggests he’s extracting every bit of performance he can out of the AMR25, but also that he’s getting fed up with not being in a competitive car.

Looking forward to the Bahrain Grand Prix, Alonso explained: “It’s going to be a very different circuit. I think that after the tests we did in Bahrain, we were always unsure about having an extra day to test.

“With what we’ve learned from the first three races, we can go to Bahrain now and confront some of the things we were unsure about in the tests.

“So we’ll use training for that. And I think it’ll be a tough weekend again. But hey, on tough weekends we’ll keep trying. And we came close today, we almost hit the nail on the head.

“So we’re not going to give up, for sure.”

While Alonso isn’t giving up, not being in contention for a top 10 finish will eventually start to grind him down.

Alonso’s future at Aston Martin is safe after back-to-back DNFs at the start of the year, but whether he’ll still be motivated at the end of his campaign based on their current form is another matter.