The complicated situation at Aston Martin is relegating Fernando Alonso to increasingly anonymous races. The English team has ended up in a technical dead end, so much so that the two-time world champion is now thinking about 2026, the year of the new regulationWho knows if by taking advantage of the latter, Alonso and Aston Martin could return to fighting for the positions that count, perhaps against Max Verstappen.
Waiting for 2026: Alonso and Aston Martin in a delicate moment
Luciano DeCrescenzo in 32 December, an old film of his from 1988, tried to explain to the spectators how time was a two-dimensional measure. That is, in addition to measuring it in length, it is also possible to measure it in width. Men, according to the Neapolitan director and writer, always try to lengthen their life when instead they should worry about broadening it, with ever new experiences and lessons to assimilate. Here, Fernando Alonso, despite probably never having seen 32 December, he has been able to both lengthen and broaden his life as a driver. He had in fact decided to put his F1 career on hold, venturing into Indy, the Wec and the Dakar. All this, while also taking some great satisfaction, especially with Toyota at Le Mans. After returning to F1 in 2021, Alonso is pursuing with all his strength a return to victory, after having scored numerous podium finishes.
The Spaniard obtained the first of these, since his return to F1, three years ago aboard the Alpine right on the Qatar circuit, where the race will be held on Sunday. Expectations for Losail, however, are very low. Aston Martin comes from a very complicated season, with the cars that have suffered a rather significant drop in performance. It was to no avail to take inspiration from Red Bull's aerodynamic philosophy last year. In fact, the English team, after having gained important points and placings, was unable to find the right path in the development of its single-seater. The one who paid the price, more than the sleeping Stroll, was Fernando Alonso, who went from fighting for the conquest of the 33rd victory to struggling to finish the races in the top ten for a few points.
Aston Martin Goal: Understand Current Issues Even at the Expense of Track Performance
Points that, by the way, Alonso and Aston Martin have not seen for four races. This is the most faithful portrait of the complicated season that is about to end. “There are ups and downs for everyone, we were not able to improve the car much during the seasonWe started off pretty strong but we are now in a position where we are struggling to even get into Q3"The disastrous performances of the last races are a sign that the development of the AMR24 has long since stopped.
The team, as the two-time world champion explained in the usual pre-Grand Prix Thursday press conference, is thus focusing on understanding the major problems suffered by the car, in order to mitigate them in view of next season. A job that, evidently, is penalizing the latest performances of Stroll and Alonso's cars. “All these difficulties probably They are teaching us a lot of lessons that we will apply to next year's car. Even though we haven't managed to improve our performance that much, we've understood well which aspects we're struggling with at the moment. and this will be applied on the AMR25. There is a clear path that we have to undertake for next year's car, that will be the goal". So says Aston Martin's number 14 on the difficult moment he is experiencing with his team.
Alonso looks to the future: fighting for the championship against Verstappen in 2026
After all the laps he dreamed of and the curves he tested, to paraphrase Francesca Michielin's song dedicated to the Spanish champion, Alonso, at forty-three years old, doesn't seem tired at all. His dream? To fight for the title again. A strength, both dreamlike and mental, capable of projecting the driver into 2026, when the new technical regulation will shuffle the cards on the table.Being able to fight for the championship would be a very nice thing to experience. We are not in that position at the moment and next year will probably be difficult. However Let's hope that in 2026 we will have a better opportunity"
In reality Fernando is right to hope. There is actually something concrete on his side. The great investment that Aston Martin is making is remarkable. The first big move was to be able to dress the british racing green ad Adrian Newey, one of the most successful and long-lived designers in the world of Formula 1. Another important step will concern the power units, which will no longer be supplied by Mercedes, but by Honda, with the Japanese giant having declared that it wants to fight for the world already from the 2026.
In short, Alonso seems to have made more than a few calculations, for what could be his last chance to fight for something truly important. Of course, it won't be easy. But the desire and tenacity that have always distinguished the Spanish champion seem to be able to be an important driving force. Always on the hunt for new challenges, the good and "old", so to speak, Alonso, who hopes in the fairly near future to be able to challenge even the reigning world champion Max Verstappen, for whom he has great respect. "So far Max has probably shown that he has no weaknesses. He always did a near perfect job on Sunday, getting a lot of points when the car wasn't going well. That's the main strength to win the championship. But I think if I had the opportunity I could make his life more difficult.".
Source statements: formulapassion.it
