Aston Martin’s nightmare begin to 2026 continued down underneath.
Fernando Alonso did not participate in FP1 (Picture: Getty)
It’s been a poor begin to the yr for Aston Martin and the primary System One race of the season hasn’t even taken place but. Having snagged Adrian Newey from Pink Bull, loads of eyes had been on the Silverstone-based constructor heading into 2026, nevertheless it’s been nothing wanting a catastrophe to date.
Having wrestled with energy unit issues for the reason that starting of pre-season testing, there have even been some strategies that Aston Martin may pull out of the Australian Grand Prix altogether. It stays to be seen whether or not they go down that individual route, however the weekend hasn’t acquired off to the most effective of begins, given Alonso has pulled out of FP1 due to an influence unit problem.
Regardless of the less-than-ideal begin to proceedings, Newey has claimed that Alonso nonetheless has a constructive outlook and isn’t being dragged down by the scenario. Commenting in Melbourne, the engineer stated: “Fernando is without doubt one of the true greats. His skill, his expertise, his all-round functionality, he ought to have received, in reality, way over the 2 championships he has to his identify and nonetheless many races wins.
“I am undecided how previous he’s. No one fairly is aware of what his age is. However he is nonetheless super-quick, super-talented, super-sharp. Speaking to him, he would not suppose he is struggling in any method. His eyesight remains to be superb. His reactions, he is very happy with the actual fact he was the quickest starter final yr, in response time. So, he is an incredible individual.
“We have been attempting to include our hopes as a result of we knew this was going to be a troublesome yr, a construct yr. We began very late and on a really compressed cycle on the chassis aspect, however we knew that meant within the first half of the season we might be capable of catch again up and we’d very a lot have performed with out the distraction that is now induced. For Fernando, it is a exhausting psychological place to be in in the meanwhile.”
Through the first follow session in Melbourne, there was a shock one-two, given each Ferrari drivers got here in quickest. Max Verstappen and new team-mate Isack Hadjar got here in simply behind, whereas the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli had been down in eighth. In FP2, Oscar Piastri of McLaren went quickest, beating Russell and Antonelli to the highest of the timesheet.
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