The Grand Prix races in Monaco and Barcelona are a major challenge for Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso. The positive vibes from Imola give them considerable optimism for this part of the season. After a devastating start, the British team has got down to work to ensure that 2025 is not as negative, at least.
Alonso and Aston Martin return to Monaco with a car that allows them to fight
With Adrian Newey at the helm and making his debut in Monaco as an Aston Martin employee, the idea is simply to continue on the same path and build on the positive feelings from last weekend. A step forward was taken that, without catapulting them into the top spots on the grid, does allow them to fight in the middle of the pack.
All with the aim of finishing the current regulations for this generation of cars as far ahead as possible. That would also be a big boost to start the key year of 2026 with even more hope that improvement is possible.
Monaco, for its part, will always be a special Grand Prix. For the good times and the not-so-good times, which there were also. It was here that the Spaniard had his penultimate (and clearest) opportunity to stop dreaming and achieve his long-awaited 33rd victory. But the intermediates…
“For once, the car’s performance was slightly better than the final result.”
It was that wet race through the streets of the Principality that ended with victory for Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso in second place. Not long ago, when Aston Martin had a car in good condition, the Spaniard was capable of touching victory.
In 2023, he finished on the podium eight times. One of those was in Monaco. It is a race where he holds two records that no one has equaled and even a third: he is the only driver in history to have won with two different teams two years in a row (2006 and 2007, with Renault and McLaren); he is the driver with the most podium finishes with more than two different teams (Renault, McLaren, Ferrari, and Aston Martin); and he is the ‘oldest’ driver to achieve a podium finish (at 41, in 2023). It was in difficult weather conditions, in which Alonso drew on his experience and only a bad decision on the tyre change deprived him of victory.
“For once, the car’s performance was slightly better than the final result. Yes. It’s one of those things where you can be disappointed to lose a point by less than a second and have a virtual Safety Car leave us with two cars out of the points. The positive thing is that we have implemented an update that has made the car faster and, until the random VSC came out, everything was going well,” said team boss Cowell after the Imola race.
It should be noted that the asphalt in Monaco, which is very smooth as befits a street circuit, will not offer such a sharp drop in performance in sector 3 as it did a week ago, but it could offer better overall performance throughout the lap. We’ll see on Saturday.
Aston Martin will allow Alonso to reach Q3
Referring to Cowell’s words, the Silverstone team believes that reaching Q3 is possible, regardless of the tires. And, depending on the circuit, being a regular in Q3. “I hope so. We come to every race with a plan to get to Q3. The guys are in the factory working hard to find the best strategy with our car, with its evolution and the characteristics of Monaco, which are quite unique,” explained the British technician.
For the first time, possibly since the AMR23 was put on track, a package of improvements has undoubtedly been a step forward, coinciding in time not only with the presence of Adrian Newey, who is believed to have had at least some involvement in the improvements at Imola, but also with the new wind tunnel, with the team’s guideline being not to talk about improvement, but rather about a new dimension of data that these facilities are providing.
For now, Monaco, which is always unpredictable, and until the cars are on the track, it is not clear whether they will be in the top ten or the bottom ten, but there have been some changes, and there is already a desire to get to Barcelona, Canada, or Austria, more conventional circuits where, in some of them, it will be possible to really establish where this car stands and against whom it can compete head-to-head. Best of all, the strategic evolution in Imola, which is also expected to be replicated in Monaco and Barcelona, has lifted spirits; the car has gone from being a single-seater with hardly any performance to one that is worth sticking with, at least until the summer.