Why Fernando Alonso is expecting more “painful results” despite Aston Martin breakthrough at F1 Monaco GP

Fernando Alonso knows he will have to deal with more "painful results" before Aston Martin upgrades its 2026 Formula 1 car. 

With an eye on the cost cap the Silverstone-based team has opted to focus its resources on a single major package rather than a drip feed of new parts, with the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps believed to be its first appearance.

Alonso stressed that Aston and Honda have been learning lessons race-by-race, with the results being fed into the dates. 

The two-time world champion scored the team's first point of the season at the Monaco Grand Prix, but only after Cadillac's Sergio Perez was demoted due to a post-race penalty. 

“We've been racing in very different circuits so far this year, all of them were clear for us in terms of understanding some of our weaknesses,” he said after the flag Monaco. “In Australia, we found our engine was very down. In China, we found our energy was very down. In Monaco, we found our chassis is down, and in Miami, we found that our gearbox was very bad.

“I think every circuit exposed some of our weakness in the car. But the good thing is that there is a very good understanding of what action is needed in each of the areas, and for the second part of the year the package that we try to bring all in once, and tackling all those problems individually, I have full faith and trust on the team.

“Because our impression and our feeling is that that car will change dramatically what we are facing now. We just need to wait another four or five races of painful results.”

Alonso was also pleased to see team principal and technical chief Adrian Newey in Monaco after an absence of several races.

"We speak with him every week, so it's not that we are not updated on things,” he said. “But when he comes to the track, he's always meticulous into the feedback of the driver and tries to understand exactly what is going on in each of the corners.

“He's thinking ahead of time, so he's thinking what the new package will bring to that specific problem that we are explaining here in Monaco, and not only this one, he's thinking of the Singapore package, what can be done for the next street circuit, and things like that.

“So we have the best with us. The more time we spend with him on track, better, better will be.”

Alonso benefited from a high attrition rate and penalties for drivers ahead to move up the order in Monaco, having started on soft tyres and then abandoned them for hards after just three laps in an attempt to stay out until the flag without another stop.

He was also aggressive at the original start and the later restart after the red flag.

“We took a lot of risk in lap one on both occasions, in Turn 1, Turn 3, and Turn 5,” he said. “After that, we tried to consolidate whatever position we were in. We were aggressive with the strategy, we talked in lap 3, and then around the safety car time. We took opportunities here and there with different penalties.”

He admitted that the car was not easy to drive: “It was difficult, because it is very easy to crash. You are 19th and you crash, and you look stupid on the TV.

“Like in FP1, I crashed into the wall braking for the chicane, and you are three seconds off the pace, and you're still crashing. It's not that you run out of talent, the car is very difficult, very on the edge.

“Obviously, we stopped in lap 3, and we were ready to go to the end, so we are driving a very difficult car with a 50 or 60 lap old tyre, that was an extra difficulty. We had the red flags, we had things that helped our race and made it a little bit more comfortable, and yeah, we try to do our best.”

While Alonso survived his team mate Lance Stroll was less fortunate, crashing at the final corner after being caught out by inconsistent engine braking which had earlier led him to get a penalty for going off track and gaining an advantage.

"We had some engine braking issues throughout the whole race,” he said when asked by Crash.net about his difficult afternoon. “All season, we've been having engine braking issues. Some corners it's pushing, some corners it's pulling, and it's doing different things all the time. On that particular corner and lap, it just pushed me into the wall, like the throttle pedal was 50% open."

He didn’t blame the loose gravel from the track breaking up at that point: “I didn't feel that being the problem. I just had the engine pushing me into the wall, like the throttle pedal stuck.”