Adrian Newey has voiced his desire to see Fernando Alonso remain at Aston Martin beyond the end of the 2026 season, with the team principal pinning his hopes on a major upgrade package to persuade the Spaniard to commit for another year.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Aston Martin’s 2026 campaign has been nothing short of dismal, as the team sits towards the rear of the constructors’ championship on a solitary point, scored through Alonso’s lone 10th-place finish.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Lance Stroll, meanwhile, has yet to trouble the scorers, sitting 22nd in the drivers’ standings with a best result of 15th.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The AMR26 has been consistently off the pace, leaving both drivers scrapping at the back of the field rather than in the midfield battle, let alone at the front.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Aston Martin deliberately chose not to bring incremental updates to the car, instead channelling all resources into one large overhaul. That strategy has left both drivers enduring a long, painful first half of the season.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“Both drivers have shown frustration, and at times that has spilled into the media,\u201d team principal Adrian Newey told AstonMartinF1.com.\u00a0\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it’s also understandable. They’re competitive animals. They want to fight at the front. I’ve had a lot of conversations with both of them about where we are, where we’re going.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Alonso’s contract expires at the end of 2026, and reports suggest Alpine, led by his long-time associate Flavio Briatore, could be looking at a reunion with the two-time champion for 2027.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The long-awaited upgrade is set to arrive at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and Newey hopes it will be enough to keep Alonso in green.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
“It’s very important. Fernando is really looking forward to the upgrade and, if it performs we hope he’ll be in the cockpit for another season,” Newey said.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u00a0“Given his experience, his feel for the car, his ability to guide development, he’s a tremendous asset. But he wants to see clear, tangible progress.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can show that we’re moving decisively in the right direction, he’s absolutely committed to being behind the wheel.”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adrian Newey has voiced his desire to see Fernando Alonso remain at Aston Martin beyond the end of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-789406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}