Alonso urges Aston Martin to prioritize short term improvements, not just Newey’s 2026 vision

SINGAPORE – Aston Martin's Formula 1 driver, Fernando Alonso, is urging his team to prioritize immediate improvements rather than waiting for Adrian Newey's influence on the 2026 car design.

Newey, renowned as a legendary F1 designer, is set to join Aston Martin in March 2024. He has been brought in primarily to focus on designing a car for the sport's forthcoming regulatory changes. Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll has made substantial investments to ensure the team's competitiveness under these new rules, adding prominent figures like Enrico Cardile from Ferrari to bolster their technical roster.

Alonso’s focus on current performance

Despite these high-profile future hires, Alonso has voiced his concerns over the team's current performance.

"I think 2026 is in our heads for everyone at Aston, and the biggest hope with Adrian coming, and Enrico, and some of the names," Alonso remarked following the Singapore qualifying session. "But 2025 is when we need to shake things up. It's not good enough what we're doing right now. We must change pace."

Alonso qualified eighth for Sunday’s race in Singapore, yet expressed that the result does not reflect the car's performance this weekend.

"Very happy with the performance," Alonso stated. "I think we're struggling this weekend a lot. Some of the weaknesses of the car are concentrated around the Singapore track. We were P12 and P18 in FP3, didn't look good at all, and our simulations ranked us around seventh or eighth, close to ninth. So things are not looking great."

During Friday practice, Alonso showcased his driving skills in an amusing incident where he saved his car from a spin. His race engineer queried if he had meant to signal a pit stop. Alonso humorously replied that he had to press all the buttons on his steering wheel "to stop this car from crashing."

When questioned about utilizing his driving talent to maximize the car's performance, Alonso confirmed: "100%. Right now I am applying all the efforts to overcome the lack of pace. We’ve been working non-stop from Baku to here, even leaving the computer at 2 a.m. yesterday, trying to find answers. But there's no miracle on track; we need the factory’s help in developing the car. We’re putting everything into it and looking forward to the next races."

Alonso's immediate call to action indicates that while the team has promising prospects with Newey and others joining, their current focus must be on short-term results to remain competitive in the near future.

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