Fernando Alonso is the senior statesman on the current Formula One grid. The double world champion has not always made the best moves from team to team during his 24 years in the sport and now even though he will be in the first Newey designed Aston Martin, that may not be good enough to see the Spaniard become a triple F1 world champion.

At forty three years of age, Fernando will be 45 when his existing contract expires at the end of 2026. Yet he will drive that year the first Newey conceived Aston Martin under the all new F1 car and power unit regulations. After that, Alonso admits he may join the Aston Martin endurance racing programme as his F1 career comes to an end.

Newey will start work for the Silverstone based F1 team in March next year, but this will be too late to have much impact on their 2025 F1 car given the design is usually finalised not long after the final race of the year and the focus turns to production of what is in effect a brand new prototype car with some 15,000 components.

 

 

 

F1 power units may dominate

2026 will be the first car from Aston Martin that is completely the design of guru engineer Newey. Yet it could be with a huge power unit regulation change and with Aston switching suppliers from Mercedes to Honda that the year becomes dominated by the difference between the different approaches to the powertrains.

When the last big change came in F1 power in 2014, Mercedes came out on top and their power unit dominated the sport for a number of years. Honda conversely arrived late to the party and only produced their first power unit for the 2015 F1 season – and it was not good.

The Japanese company produced an unreliable power unit which was also under powered and famously described by Alonso himself as “GP2 engine.” McLaren had arrived at Honda’s home race with the Japanese manufacturer still struggling with battery deployment, something which accounted for upwards of 160BHP on the new turbo hybrid powertrains. From the start of the race it was clear Alonso and team-mate Jenson Button were completely outmatched for power down the start/finish straight, especially when cars behind had the benefit of DRS.

On lap six, when the Sauber of Marcus Ericsson eased past the two-time world champion on the run down into Turn 1, Alonso told McLaren: “It feels like GP2. Embarrassing. Very embarrassing. I’ll do my best…”

Newey calls out Wolff/Hamilton psycology

 

 

 

Honda better prepared for F1

Of course Honda will not be a year behind the other power unit manufacturers this time but there are paddock reports that the power unit in 2026 will again be the key decider in who wins both championships that season.

Fernando is happy for Aston Martin to not put too much resource into next years car and focus on 2026, but it may be Honda that determines whether the team is competitive and not Adrian Newey’s masterpiece of aerodynamic design.

“I think the focus for most of the teams will be [about] their 2026 project and change of regulations,” said Alonso today in Baku, pinning his hopes on the fact it could be the car design which eventually makes the difference.

“I don’t think that is really worth spending so much in the 2025 campaign unless we are fighting for the championship, which I hope we have a nice surprise. But I think the 2026 project should be the first car that he [Newey] has an influence on.”

Newey accuses FIA of failing to scrutinise Mercedes properly

 

 

 

Alonso hints at WEC future

But unless Honda and Newey ace the biggest regulation change in the history of F1, Fernando will not be claiming the third F1 drivers’ title. He told assembled media today in Azerbaijan: “I will be driving in 2026 and after 2026, I will be in Formula 1 or another series. If I am not driving in Formula 1, I will be in the Aston Martin team somehow, so I will enjoy that bright future hopefully.” 

“The Valkyrie programme for Le Mans is taking shape as well and making its debut next year so who knows for 2027, 2028 or 2029?”

Speaking during the announcement from Aston Martin that Adrian Newey was joining their team, veteran pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz expressed concerns for Alonso’s pursuit of a final F1 title, suggesting the up-coming FIA regulation changes may in fact work against Newey.

With the hybrid unit delivering 50% of the power output on the new cars, Kravitz expects a repeat of 2014 where the powertrains were the “dominant factor” in determining performance. If so, whatever Newey brings to the party may be marginalised by Honda’s competitiveness.

Major F1 attack: Newey’s ‘latest toy’ now available

 

 

 

Coulthard sees Alonso challenge in 2025

When F1 was an ‘engine formula’ from 2014-20212, Newey’s Red Bull car designs struggled to challenge the might of Mercedes. They won just 17 races across 2014-2020 – five fewer than they won last season alone.

Kravitz said: “The only problem is that for 2026, which will be Newey’s first car, there’s this huge regulation change coming in which is pretty much dominated by the power units. It changes the power units completely and the car is having to adapt to the new requirements of the power units.”

Ex-F1 driver and now pundit for Channel 4, David Coulthard suggested the Newey influence on the second half of next season could in fact see Fernando win his third F1 championship. That said, should Red Bull sort out their current woes, the competitive order looks likely to remain similar.

For Fernando Alonso fans it would be a tragedy if he was shipped off to endurance racing and then Newey’s design for Aston Martin F1 came good in 2027. The again the reason for Lawrence Stroll buying the team and investing over $200m was to build a car capable of taking his son to the F1 drivers’ title and so Alonso and even Max Verstappen may not really be on his radar for the future.

Haas F1 team boss talks about Magnussen rumours

 

 

 

Newey SLAMS “biased” Sky F1

Adrian Newey is free from the shackles which held him quiet during his time at Milton Keynes and it appears the guru F1 engineer wants to get a number of issues off his chest. TJ13 reported earlier this week that Newey believes Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton were damaged “physiologically” by the last race, last lap victory of Max Verstappen in 2021.

The new Aston Martin partner for technical engineering claims Mercedes could not shake the disappointment from this loss in Abu Dhabi which then affected they team’s ability to ‘reset’ and get back to work as normal on “Monday morning.”

TJ13 also reported yesterday that Newey accused the FIA of failing to do their job properly during the 2021 season and investigate a number of parts on the Mercedes car which Red Bull believed were illegal… READ MORE