Fernando Alonso still trusts Honda, even after Monza exposed the painful distance between Aston Martin’s ambition and its current reality. Speed should feel effortless beneath these trees. Instead, Alonso spent Friday fighting vibrations, fading acceleration, and a car that looked exhausted before reaching the braking zone.
The timing screen supplied the shock. Alonso finished FP2 in 19th place, 2.468 seconds behind George Russell’s Mercedes. He climbed from the cockpit and did precisely what few expected: he defended Honda.
Practice times require caution. Fuel loads, tire programs, traffic, and engine modes can distort every comparison. Aston Martin also spent Friday testing all three Pirelli compounds during track temperatures that reached 56 degrees Celsius, according to the team.
Still, the wider picture looked bleak. Alonso trailed the quickest Williams by 1.174 seconds, with only Lance Stroll and the two Cadillacs behind him. No public evidence confirms whether Cadillac ran a comparable fuel load or baseline program, so the order cannot support a clean performance comparison. Even so, Aston Martin’s position beside Formula 1’s newest team captured the scale of its difficult afternoon.
Monza Delivered an Uncomfortable Reality Check
Aston Martin always expected Monza to expose its weaknesses. The Italian circuit ruthlessly demands three things the AMR26 currently lacks: efficient aerodynamics, sustained electrical deployment, and pure straight-line speed.
Friday confirmed those fears immediately.
“No power,” Alonso reported over team radio. Moments later, his frustration sharpened: “What’s happening?”
When the team requested more detail, the answer came without decoration: “Engine, straight, vibrations, no top speed.” AS reported those exchanges from the session, along with another uncomfortable detail. Alonso’s seat had begun overheating again.
Such radio messages carry more meaning than a single practice result. Drivers can excuse a slow lap caused by heavy fuel or an interrupted program. They cannot easily ignore vibrations through the steering wheel or an engine that stops pulling near the end of a straight.
Monza magnifies that sensation. Its long full-throttle sections leave a driver exposed when electrical energy runs short. Once the battery contribution fades, rivals keep accelerating while the slower car hangs in the air.
That vulnerability sits at the heart of Formula 1’s 2026 power-unit regulations. MGU-K output increased from 120 to 350 kilowatts, while the combustion engine now contributes a smaller share of the total power. Drivers therefore depend heavily on smooth, sustained electrical delivery.
Alonso does not need a data trace to recognize when that energy disappears. The acceleration softens beneath his right foot. The engine note flattens. A rival suddenly grows larger in the mirrors.
Poor delivery creates problems beyond the straight. It can trigger wheelspin out of a chicane or unsettle the rear when Alonso downshifts into Monza’s heavy braking zones.
That weakness followed Aston Martin from Zandvoort. Honda introduced its revised power unit there, but Alonso struggled to feel the promised increase. He described its driveability as a problem and said the extra power remained difficult to detect.
However, the Dutch circuit allowed the improved chassis to compensate. Alonso’s ninth-place finish reflected Aston Martin’s progress through medium-speed and long corners, along with a smart one-stop strategy.
Monza offered no such protection. Its straights dragged the engine deficit into daylight.
Honda’s Sakura Response Has Started, but the Clock Is Moving
Honda did not arrive in Italy empty-handed. Between Zandvoort and Monza, engineers returned to the dynamometer at the manufacturer’s Sakura facility and concentrated on combustion control.
Shintaro Orihara, Honda’s trackside general manager and chief engineer, said the updated engine showed a measurable performance improvement in internal data. Yet engineers also found driveability problems that limited how effectively Alonso could use that power.
Honda changed its combustion characteristics and prepared revised control settings for Monza. Orihara reported that those countermeasures behaved as expected during Friday’s run.
The stopwatch offered a harsher assessment.
Driveability sounds like a technical abstraction until the driver presses the throttle. In simple terms, Alonso needs the engine to deliver exactly what his right foot requests. Any delay, surge, vibration, or sudden torque change complicates his work.
Honda must solve those problems without sacrificing reliability. It’s difficult to open to 2026 already included battery limitations during preseason testing and further trouble during the early races.
Aston Martin cannot fix the deficit through rear-wing changes alone. Trimming downforce may increase top speed, but it also weakens braking stability and traction. The car then loses time in the corners that precede each straight.
Honda has the infrastructure to attack the problem. The RA626H power unit came from Sakura, the same technical base that supported the company’s championship-winning Red Bull partnership.
Alonso also highlighted another reason for his confidence. Personnel who worked on that previous project have returned to the program, while Honda strengthened its power-unit leadership. The manufacturer has not publicly identified every returning engineer, but Alonso clearly views that continuity as important evidence.
His trust rests on people, not promotional language.
The Ghost of McLaren Honda Makes His Defense Remarkable
Alonso knows Honda’s lowest point better than almost anyone. Eleven years before this Monza struggle, he sat inside another green car powered by another underdeveloped Honda engine.
The 2015 McLaren reunion promised nostalgia and championships. Instead, it produced breakdowns, grid penalties, and humiliation on the straights.
At Suzuka, Honda’s home race, Alonso delivered the radio message that defined the partnership: “GP2 engine.”
Few drivers have criticized a manufacturer so memorably. Fewer still have returned to publicly defend that same company during another painful opening season.
His change in tone does not mean Alonso has forgotten 2015. Quite the opposite. That experience taught him how far Honda can fall and how dramatically it can recover.
Years passed before the company reached the front with Red Bull. Honda later powered Max Verstappen to the 2021 drivers’ championship and supported Red Bull’s domination during the final years of the previous engine cycle.
That history shapes Alonso’s current position. He can ruthlessly criticize the engine’s output while fiercely defending the people building it.
Aston Martin also offers what McLaren lacked in 2015: true works-team status. Honda exclusively supplies the power unit, while Aston Martin controls the chassis, gearbox, and overall packaging from Silverstone.
The arrangement should remove the compromises created when a customer team builds around another manufacturer’s components. Yet full control brings full accountability. Neither side can blame an outside supplier when the package fails to be delivered.
That responsibility explains why Alonso’s public support matters. He could destabilize the project with one cutting sentence. Instead, he has chosen to keep pressure inside the partnership.
Alonso’s Faith Comes With a Ruthless Deadline
Alonso believes Honda can reach the required level within two or three years. His own decision cannot wait that long.
At 45 years old, with his Aston Martin contract expiring after 2026, he must judge whether the project has moved quickly enough to justify another season. That makes the coming months more important than Honda’s distant development targets.
Alonso has promised complete effort regardless of position. Scraping for the lower points will not affect his professionalism, but it could rapidly kill his motivation.
His dissatisfaction also extends beyond Aston Martin. Alonso has criticized the 2026 regulations and questioned whether the current cars resemble the Formula 1 that drivers and spectators want. He insists the sport’s direction will influence his future more than one isolated result.
Even so, competitiveness will shape that choice. A driver does not spend two decades chasing tenths because he enjoys finishing 15th.
Honda must now translate its Sakura work into something Alonso can feel. Better combustion settings need to result in a cleaner throttle response. Promised output must survive the full straight. Dyno gains must finally appear on the stopwatch.
Meanwhile, Aston Martin must preserve the chassis progress it showed at Zandvoort. Monza represents an extreme test, not the character of every remaining circuit, but the AMR26 cannot keep relying on cornering layouts to hide its engine.
The faith remains real. So does the warning.
Honda has the resources to fix the deficit, and Aston Martin has built its future around that possibility. Alonso now needs evidence that both can move faster than his decision. Whether Monza becomes the project’s lowest point may determine if he stays long enough to see the recovery.
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FAQs
Why does Fernando Alonso still trust Honda?
Alonso believes Honda has elite facilities, experienced personnel, and the resources to recover. He also remembers how the company rebuilt successfully with Red Bull.
How slow was Alonso during Monza practice?
Alonso finished FP2 in 19th, 2.468 seconds behind George Russell. Different fuel loads and engine modes mean practice times require careful interpretation.
What problems did Alonso report at Monza?
He reported weak power, vibrations, and poor top speed. His seat also overheated during the session.
Why does Monza expose Aston Martin’s engine weakness?
Monza demands sustained electrical deployment and strong acceleration along its long straights. The circuit gives weaker power units few places to hide.
Will Alonso remain with Aston Martin after 2026?
Alonso has not confirmed his plans. Aston Martin’s progress and Formula 1’s technical direction will influence his decision.
