2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[diffuser]

May be Alonso will be inside 107% when quali comes. Is it measured against Q1 best time or Q3 best time.

Q1

[Otromundo]

With the due caution required by the complexity of the situation... without forgetting that the main obstacle (reliability) should not yet be considered overcome... it is the first time the car seems to have improved. It is not a great feat, and moreover, that improvement needs to be confirmed in both cars... but it is the first sign of progress. Maybe we have a car: Fernando has driven more smoothly and the car seems more predictable.

With the new regulations, drivers have a lot of added mental work. It does not seem so easy to "nail" lap times. And I still need to see the real effects of the power modes in the race. The electric motor, when it deploys its power, adds "spice," forcing the driver to anticipate the whip. I thought I would like these new cars less.

It seems to me that the new rules favor Alonso precisely because of the above: the volume of mental work and the experience that he has accumulated in different competitions.

I absolutely did not expect the avalanche of problems that the project currently has. But if they manage to achieve acceptable reliability and continue making the car progress-evolve... we would have a car. And since we have a driver... maybe... even starting with a wooden sword... maybe... we will not get bored.

[Nikosar]

Considering they run with high fuel to try to reduce vibrations + time loss from engine.

The fastest lap from Alo is a solid one. AMR26 can be competitive if Honda fixes their issue.

[venkyhere]

I still remember readng here in this forum, years ago (21?22? ), that many members of Honda F1 team were reassigned to other projects, and "new blood"/team will work on next engine.
Read here, written by a Honda employee.
And so many people keep repeating "Oh my god, how could they do that, i had no idea"
What.
The.
F.

If I knew it, how could Newwy/Stroll/Cowell not know it?!

Bingo.
The "we didn't know until nov-25" is a BS excuse. That was a good question from the reporter, to bring out this BS response. They have 'failed'. And the likes of Newey/Stroll etc are too proud to admit that they did. If a vendor/supplier has under-delivered, it means the contract/monitoring/overwatch by the mothership (who already have an in-house 'expert' (Cowell) ), failed. And the icing on this cake of failure, were the 'last minute requests' for ancilliaries/peripherals repackaging, which by itself could have led to more bugs/issues.

There are so many layers to this mess, that each onion peel reveals more and more. Engineering, project management, clash of egos,

[Waz]

It's absurd in the least to blame AM or Newey because Honda failed again, framing it as they should be monitoring the program.

Honda are a giant company compared to any F1 team. Is everyone forgetting that Newey had already been working with them at RBR for a few years?

It's not unrealistic then that he would have confidence in anything they tell him, and likely to believe the team who were building engines for RBR would just continue for AMR.

It's not his job to get a list of people at Honda and compare to before. Why would it be?

[auem123]

What is the story for Lance?

[auem123]

Alonso did really good. The car has quite potenntial if Honda can sort out their problems. IF!

[FNTC]

Fighting with the Alpine and almost made it to q2. 2.5s off the front or something.

[LookingGlass]

Alonso outqualified Verstappen

Just like I predicted before the season

Edit: On a serious note, today was the first positive day so far. Hopefully they can build on today.

[makecry]

I kind of think the car is not that bad and if drivetrain issues are sorted, we may have a decent season on hands.

[Ashwinv16]

Yeah it already confirmed from the sector times the cars 80-100hp down. They did say more spares and a more robust solution for the vibration is coming in china so lets see. Definitly the most postive day so far for Aston Martin. Just need to ask Alonso if vibrations have improved and think we set, not for championship fights but like a solid p4 or p5 with maybe a podium or two late in the season once we bring in relaistic Expectation considering new engine and gearbox and new wind tunnel and stuff. Honda had to deliver a miracle but they couldt so think lets try and settle for solid mid pack this season.

[AhmerBaig]

There is hope after all.

[Rikrikrik]

If you take the seriousness of the problems and the new features that Aston Martin is debuting, it's much better than Alpine and Williams, which has the best engine and sacrificed ALL of 2025 to be better today, and is less than a second ahead of AM.

[Ashwinv16]

If you take the seriousness of the problems and the new features that Aston Martin is debuting, it's much better than Alpine and Williams, which has the best engine and sacrificed ALL of 2025 to be better today, and is less than a second ahead of AM.

Not to mention the pace Mercedes just showed compared to Mclaren and rest of the grid is enough proof why Aston had to look outside for this year and Honda was their best option desptie all the draw backs.

[HondaPOD]

Fernando Alonso:

"Even though the power unit is the same as yesterday, we've gained two seconds just by being on the track"