Monaco points fails to lift Alonso: ‘There are zero positives’

Fernando Alonso may have delivered to Aston Martin its first championship point of the 2026 Formula 1 season in Monaco, but the Spaniard left the Principality sounding more concerned than encouraged about the team's fortunes.

A post-race penalty promoted Alonso to 10th place, finally ending Aston Martin's pointless start to the campaign. Yet rather than celebrating a breakthrough result, the two-time world champion painted a bleak picture of a team whose weaknesses seem to be multiplying with every Grand Prix.

After qualifying at the very back of the field and relying on strategy, attrition and penalties to sneak into the points, Alonso insisted the result masked the true scale of Aston Martin's struggles.

“Zero positives from this weekend,” said the Spaniard after last weekend’s race quoted by Motorsport.com.

“We've been racing in very different circuits so far this year, all of them were clear for us in terms of understanding some of our weaknesses.

“In Australia we found our engine was very down, in China we found our energy was very down, in Monaco we found our chassis is down and in Canada and in Miami we found that our gearbox was very bad.

“I think every circuit exposed some of our weakness in the car.”

A growing list of problems

The F1 veteran’s comments reflect the difficult reality facing the Silverstone-based squad. The season began on shaky ground after delays disrupted its winter preparations, and subsequent races have revealed a succession of performance issues.

Monaco only added to the concerns, with Aston Martin's cars qualifying 21st and 22nd and finishing more than three seconds adrift of pole position pace around the shortest lap on the calendar.

For Alonso, the championship point did little to disguise the underlying picture.

The 44-year-old Spaniard has spent much of the season helping the team identify the AMR26's shortcomings, and while the diagnosis may be growing clearer, the cure remains some distance away.

"The good thing is [we have] a very good understanding on what action is needed in each of the areas. For the second part of the year, the package that we try to bring are tackling all those problems individually," he said.

"I have full faith and trust on the team. Because our impression and our feeling is that the car will change dramatically to what we are facing now. We just need to wait for another four or five races of painful results.”

Those final words perhaps summed up Aston Martin's current predicament better than anything else. There is hope for the future, but little expectation of immediate relief.

Pinning hopes on Newey

One of the reasons Alonso remains optimistic despite the team's struggles is the presence of Adrian Newey.

The legendary designer, now serving as Aston Martin's team principal after joining the project, was present in Monaco and closely involved in discussions about the car's ongoing issues.

Alonso believes Newey is already looking beyond the team's current troubles and planning solutions for the months ahead.

"When he comes to the track, he's always meticulous in the feedback of the driver and to try to understand exactly what is going on in each of the corners,” Alonso explained.

“I think he's thinking ahead of time, so he's thinking what the new package will bring to that specific problem that we are explaining here in Monaco. But not only this one, he's [also] thinking in a Singapore package what can be done for the next street circuit and things like that.

“We have the best with us. So the more time we spend with him on track, [the] better will be.”

For now, however, Aston Martin remains rooted near the back of the grid. Monaco finally delivered a point, but Alonso's verdict was unmistakable.

The result may have ended one unwanted statistic, yet it did little to ease concerns about the mountain the team still has to climb.

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