Fernando Alonso mounts pressure on Aston Martin ahead of the 2026 F1 season

Sakhir, Bahrain – With only three days remaining before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso is demanding rapid answers from Aston Martin after a pre-season campaign that has veered from concerning to chaotic.

The Silverstone squad arrived late to February’s Barcelona shakedown and has since accumulated a catalogue of setbacks. Lance Stroll’s running has been repeatedly curtailed by technical failures, while Honda’s own GPS telemetry indicates the revised 2.4-litre hybrid power unit has been hit hardest by the sport’s incoming engine regulations. Adrian Newey’s design organisation, tasked with delivering the ambitious AMR26, has also logged lap times that, at one stage, left the team trailing even Cadillac during early Bahrain mileage.

Italian journalist Roberto Chinchero, analysing the situation on the official Motorsport YouTube channel, said the root of the malaise runs deep. “There are so many processes involved that even the Barcelona tests were completed at the last minute because they renewed all the production processes. It is clear that Honda is behind schedule. I believe the rumours are correct that they are not running with a more powerful engine for fear of reliability issues. The car, and this is perhaps the biggest surprise, seems to have some significant teething problems.”

Chinchero added that while aerodynamic or mechanical gremlins can, in theory, be cured with in-season updates, an inherent power-unit deficit is far more problematic. “If you have a significant engine deficiency, then the alarm is louder because you cannot intervene on the engine between now and Bahrain. It should be certified after six races if there is a power gap, after which you have the extra budget and opportunity to work on it.”

Alonso, entering his third campaign with the team after switching from Alpine, offered little encouragement following his first meaningful laps of 2026. The Spaniard, who will turn 45 before the season concludes, stepped out of the cockpit visibly frustrated, his feedback centred not only on the car’s balance but on a deeper unease about the project’s direction. Last year he collected eight podiums; across 2024 and 2025 that tally slipped to just three as Red Bull and Max Verstappen tightened their grip on the championship.

With Williams already eclipsing Aston Martin’s mileage tally despite skipping Barcelona, the priority for this week’s final Bahrain test is brutally simple: accumulate laps, harvest data and prove the car can survive a grand prix distance. Failure to do so, Alonso fears, could leave both him and Stroll vulnerable to a Q1 exit in Melbourne, let alone a points-scoring finish.

With the new campaign poised to define the twilight of one of Formula 1’s most decorated careers, Aston Martin’s hierarchy now face a race against time to provide the two-time world champion with machinery worthy of his reputation. Without swift solutions, the team risks not only a humbling start to 2026 but the possibility of losing the faith of its lead driver before the championship fight has truly begun.