It seemed that Aston Martin’s situation in 2026 couldn’t get any worse, but the Japanese Grand Prix showed that it could. Aston Martin had been the second-worst car in the first two races of the year, but Suzuka brought changes: the Cadillacs have overtaken them, so Aston Martin is now the worst.
Fernando Alonso was able to finish at Suzuka his first race of the season, but his race pace was truly worrying. Even with a Safety Car mid-race, he was lapped. And the worst part is that improvements in performance are not expected to arrive for at least the next four months.
There will be no performance upgrades for Aston Martin until the summer
Everything can get worse, and if anyone knows it, it’s Aston Martin. There had been a lot of speculation about a supposed Honda reaction in Japan in front of its fans, but nothing could be farther from reality. Instead of improving, Aston Martin’s performance declined. So much so that it has gone from second-to-last to last in Formula 1.
The result of Saturday’s qualifying was decisive: the best Cadillac, Sergio Pérez’s, was more than four tenths faster than the best Aston Martin, Alonso’s. And that is taking into account the driver factor, because if we use Lance Stroll as the comparison baseline, the gap to the Cadillacs was more than seven tenths.
After all, Cadillac’s problems are pure youth, logical in a completely new team. Their Ferrari engine is performing very well in other cars, so Cadillac is improving by leaps and bounds simply with more miles on the clock. Right now they are clearly ahead of Aston Martin.
And not only in qualifying, but also in the race. Alonso was able to finish his first race of the year, but he was lapped, and that a Safety Car regrouped the field midway. Alonso finished behind Sergio Pérez, who, however, was not lapped in the Cadillac. Alonso did beat Valtteri Bottas, who dealt with technical problems throughout the race.
The most worrying thing is that no short-term improvements are expected for Aston Martin, at least in terms of performance. Honda is now focused on solving the vibrations and improving reliability, but paddock rumors say there will be no speed-focused updates at least until summer.
Silverstone and Spa, in July, are the races marked as the most optimistic for upgrades. There remains a long journey through the desert for Alonso.
Images | Formula 1, Aston Martin
