Alonso (Aston Martin): “Do our rivals in the basement have a money-printing machine?”

Anyone looking for improvements to the Aston Martin race car at the Red Bull Ring was left disappointed. Whilst the rivals are rolling out one evolution package after another, the Greens, on the other hand, are doing – nothing – for the time being.

Fernando Alonso in Austria: “I want to be successful with Aston Martin. But when you’re so far behind, it’s not easy to make up ground over the course of all these races. Under the cost cap, there’s no point in spending a lot of money just to go four tenths faster per lap. We need bigger steps; we have to think differently.”

“It’s surprising to see the FIA website every Friday at race weekends, listing all the improvements to the race cars. Perhaps our rivals have a money-printing machine in their basement.”

But according to Alonso, he doesn’t question the approach taken by technical director Adrian Newey: “You can’t simply take a trial-and-error approach to upgrades, so I think we really needed the first three or four races to understand our weaknesses and limitations, before starting to test solutions in the wind tunnel, and also to see which solutions the other cars are implementing and which of those are working.”

“After missing the winter test in Barcelona and having a poor first test in Bahrain, and after realising the full extent of our situation in Australia – where, at the time, we didn’t even know whether we should finish the race – we decided to take a different approach. And that decision is the right one.”

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26.07.2026 - 17:15