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Aston Martin may have scored a point at the Monaco Grand Prix, but it was still a largely sobering weekend.
Fernando Alonso knows he didn’t finish 10th on merit. He needed penalties for Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez after the chequered flag, even though the race featured seven retirements.
Qualifying was the true illustration of Aston Martin’s ongoing woes. They locked out the back row, outperformed by Cadillac and seven-tenths off the time required to make Q2.
From 21st on the grid, Fernando Alonso finished the Monaco GP in the points! What is it going to take to replicate that performance later this season?
Photo credit: 2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team
Fernando Alonso’s honest admission about Aston Martin’s chassis
Speaking before the first race of the season in Australia, team principal and car designer Adrian Newey claimed Aston Martin had the fifth-best chassis. The implication was that the crisis at Honda has obscured the car’s points-scoring potential.
But as the season has unfolded, it has become clear that Newey was putting far too much blame on his engine supplier and overstating the strength of his car. Monaco was the clearest demonstration yet.
While it was unreasonable to expect Aston Martin to suddenly leap into Q2 at Monte Carlo without any major upgrades to the car, their performance should have been far better based on Newey’s assessment. At a minimum, they ought to have beaten Cadillac, and potentially got close to a struggling Haas.
Monaco, is after all, the ultimate test of a car’s chassis. As the slowest circuit of the year, it’s the least power-hungry.
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This was supposed to be the one race that suited the ‘AMR26’. But rather than being an outlier, it was simply a continuation of the early trends.
“In Australia, we found our engine was very down,” Alonso said. “In China, we found our energy was very down. In Monaco, we found our chassis is down.”
- READ MORE: Ralf Schumacher has heard about a ‘massive row’ at Aston Martin amid ’embarrassing’ season
Team ambassador Pedro de la Rosa added: “We were expecting to be a bit better here, but we found a very, very severe mid-corner understeer in the low-speed.”
These remarks effectively confirm that Newey’s confidence was misplaced. Despite a fortunate point, neither he nor Aston Martin should be under any illusions as to the scale of the task they face.
Right now, this appears to be the worst car on the grid across the board, an awful long way from the top five.
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