Fernando Alonso gave a harsh assessment of Aston Martin after a complicated Australian GP, marked by Honda reliability issues in the debut of the 2026 Formula 1 season. The two-time world champion also spoke about his expectations for the Chinese GP, which are low.
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Extreme power unit vibrations continued to hinder both him and Lance Stroll. “It’s similar to Bahrain, and it’s not the best feeling with this level of vibration,” Alonso told the press. Both drivers retired from the race but returned to the track to collect data. Alonso retired near the end to preserve components, while Stroll completed the race 15 laps down.
“The start and the first two laps were the most enjoyable part of the race, being in P10 for two laps was unexpected… We were completely out of position in P10, then I dropped to P17, and then we had a small data issue that forced us to stop the car, and then we repaired it, and went back out again, and another problem appeared, so we stopped for the second time,” the Spaniard detailed.
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Alonso questioned Honda’s progress: “I think Honda believes that the vibrations in the battery have decreased since Bahrain, with some of the modifications, but that hasn’t happened yet in the chassis because they need to isolate the battery in a different way.”
The driver is already projecting difficulties for China. “It won’t be any different, so I expect another difficult weekend, but we can’t give up, we need to keep trying different solutions, especially on the chassis, to try to improve the package,” he stated.
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