(Motorsport-Total.com) – Fernando Alonso struggled with his Aston Martin in the first free practice session in Monaco. Shortly before the end of the session, the two-time world champion briefly lost control of his car, causing him to graze the barrier at the entrance to the Nouvelle chicane. Due to debris on the track, the session had to be briefly interrupted afterwards.
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The day before, Alonso had spoken about the AMR26 tending to suddenly downshift without driver input. This can, among other things, cause the rear axle of a vehicle to lock up.
“I don’t really know what happened,” explains Pedro de la Rosa after the session in the FIA press conference. “Clearly, the rear axle is locking up, but I don’t know if that was due to the downshift or not. I haven’t been able to look at the data yet.”
“But there was definitely a problem with the rear axle,” explains the former Formula 1 driver. “He temporarily released the brake just to catch the car again, otherwise he would have spun completely. To come out of that with only minor damage to the front wing really speaks for him.”
De la Rosa emphasizes that this incident is also part of a larger problem. Drivability and predictability, from the 55-year-old’s perspective, still have room for improvement.
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“The car is still too difficult to drive, so we still have a lot more work to do on it,” summarizes the brand ambassador.
Ahead of the event, Alonso had addressed the gearbox problems. Although the seating issues of the 32-time Grand Prix winner could be resolved, the Aston Martin driver remained skeptical before the weekend in the principality.
Since 2026, Aston Martin has been running with Honda engines. The power units from Sakura have so far caused headaches in the racing team not only due to a lack of performance but especially due to strong vibrations. At times, Alonso and Stroll were unable to complete full race distances.
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