Fernando Alonso delivered a spectacular display in the rain at Interlagos. He reached Q3 for the first time this season, passed the Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton on the outside and posted a formidable race pace. But all of that culminated in him finishing outside the points. And the issue is becoming increasingly clear: Honda’s engine.
After the race, when asked about the weekend, Fernando Alonso did not hold back. The Asturian pointed directly at Honda, and at the dramatic deficit of top speed that Aston Martin suffers on the straights. Without it, Alonso believes they could have been as much as a second per lap faster than the Mercedes.
“It’s Not Fun to Race with Inferior Tools”
Fernando Alonso was one of the standout figures of the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix. The Asturian capitalized on the rain to unleash his magic, getting the Aston Martin into Q3 for the first time in the year, and even briefly leading Q1. The icing on the cake was the overtake on Hamilton during the race, though there was another dizzying move on Alexander Albon. The problem? He again finished outside the points.
Alonso could only manage twelfth, hampered by a lack of top speed on the straights that prevented any attempt to advance, especially as the track was drying. Alonso was blunt when demanding solutions from Honda: “It’s not fun racing with equipment inferior to the rest.”
And it seems that Alonso believes that “the car was phenomenal in corners. Taking into account what we lose on the straights, we could have been a second faster per lap than the Mercedes.” A harsh claim considering that Mercedes won the Constructors’ Championship in Brazil. They have been the dominant car all year.
The data speaks for itself. Alonso and Lance Stroll were the two slowest cars in top speed in sector 1, at 322 and 317 km/h respectively. The fastest there was Arvid Lindblad, at 349 km/h. At the finish line, Alonso reached 336 km/h on his best lap. The record belonged to Pierre Gasly with 352 km/h.
So Alonso urges Honda, reminding that “there is nothing new to learn about the car at this stage; we are already in the twenty-first race, so we know exactly which aspects we must improve.” The problem is that from Honda they do not seem to have short-term solutions, not even for the start of 2027.
It seems that Adrian Newey’s chassis is already becoming one of the best in Formula 1, but on the mechanical side there is still a long road ahead.
Images | Aston Martin, Honda
