Alonso ready to accept Aston Martin’s lack of progress in 2025

fernando alonso Knows Aston Martin may not be leading in Formula 1 next season, but expects his team to move forward with the new rules in 2026.

After a promising start to the 2023 season, with Alonso taking six podium finishes in the first eight rounds, Aston’s performance against its rivals has plateaued. mclaren Went ahead.

It achieved only two further top-three results that year; None in 2024, with a best result of fifth in Jeddah courtesy of the Spaniard.

The AMR24’s lack of competitiveness led to former Red Bull aerodynamicist Dan Fallows being removed from the role of technical director.

2025 will be the fourth and last season under the current rule set, with performance gains expected to be smaller and smaller. As a result, it seems unlikely that Aston can now threaten the established top four teams.

Asked if he was prepared to be patient and bide his time for 2026 if Aston were to spend another year in the midfield, Alonso said: “Yeah, we’ll have a lot of wind tunnel hours.”

The two-time F1 World Champion is referring to the aerodynamic testing regulations, which allow more wind tunnel runs and more CFD tests for teams with worse positions, based on a sliding scale from first to last place in the Constructors’ Championship.

Thus, Aston will enjoy 864 wind-tunnel runs in the first six months of 2025, while the figure for defending champions McLaren was only 672, before using the standings after June’s Austrian Grand Prix to determine the new season for the next six months. This is done to establish the order.

The timing is crucial as the development of new technical regulations for 2026 will be permitted from next January. Additionally, Aston Martin’s new Silverstone campus is close to being fully operational after years of construction, while Red Bull’s former chief technical officer Adrian Newey and former ferrari Technical director Enrico Cardile will begin work with the British outfit early next year.

“Now I think we can reset, we can learn from all the difficulties and mistakes of this year and apply those learnings to next year’s project,” said Alonso.

“The new factory is now complete, the new wind tunnel is also going to open soon. (New group CEO) Andy Cowell has already changed some of the weaknesses he found in the team, so we have confidence in the new management, and I think things are moving in the right direction, so I’m happy about that.

“But there aren’t a lot of miracles in Formula 1 – you need to be patient, you need to find that sweet spot in the car, you need to find that upgrade that really awakens everything in these ground-effect cars “

Alonso wants Aston to follow McLaren’s example as the Woking-based team put itself at the forefront of the field at the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix with a single upgrade package that laid the foundation for its title-winning campaign this year.

“He started last time (in 2023) and then won the race in mid-season and we need to learn from him,” Alonso insisted. “This is a good example of how things can be done.

“In Austria they introduced a package, they got six, seven tenths or whatever – and that was the beginning of a series of packages that ultimately made their car the fastest. So the Austria package, if we want to call it that, is something we need to work on.