Fernando Alonso nailed his first point of the season in Monaco, but the ricochet that set it in motion doesn’t disguise what was a lamentable weekend for Aston Martin. The green team arrived having shed nearly a tenth of a second per lap on the straight sections at a twisty circuit like Monaco, something entirely unusual.
Yet the core issue is no longer purely the Honda engine. Although early in the year all eyes pointed at the Japanese power unit, a chassis-focused track like Monaco has drawn attention to Aston Martin’s own work. And there is one element that shines especially in its negative aspect: the gearbox.
The gearbox was a headache for Aston Martin in Monaco
Before taking to the circuit in Monaco, Fernando Alonso dared to predict that this could be the place where the team scored its first points of the year if everything went perfectly. In the end, the first point arrived, but perfection was far from what Aston Martin experienced. Indeed, the AMR26 was, by a wide margin, the slowest car in the Principality.
Aston Martin was losing about eight tenths in Monaco’s short straights, but both the engineers and Fernando Alonso agree: it isn’t only the Honda engine’s fault. In fact, the Japanese power unit, which FIA has acknowledged as having a deficit, is far from being Aston Martin’s greatest problem right now.
The big problem for Aston Martin is the gearbox. Alonso himself described that it has to be re-synced every time they drop below 40 km/h. On a circuit like Monaco, with the Loews corner, that is a torture that turned the AMR26 into the slowest car and sent it to the back row of the grid.
This year marks the first time Aston Martin builds its own gearbox. Up until now they had purchased Mercedes units, but in 2026 the Alonso-led team embarked on making their own, and so far it has been a resounding failure. Honda kept one unit in Japan to align with the engine mid-season, but even so they are still far off.
The problem isn’t only about synchronization; there are moments when gears don’t engage when they should, or engage when they haven’t been requested. That, on a circuit like Monaco, is a recipe for wall contact, as Alonso experienced in Friday’s practice or Lance Stroll in Sunday’s race.
Yes, the Honda engine has its issues, but neither the chassis nor the gearbox of Aston Martin is up to the task. And a circuit like Monaco has laid bare that truth.
Images | Aston Martin
