(Motorsport-Total.com) – According to Fernando Alonso, further work is needed at Aston Martin to optimally tune the more powerful Honda engine, after he struggled to keep his car on the track during the sprint qualifying in Zandvoort (Formula 1 2026 live in the ticker).
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Alonso and his teammate Lance Stroll received the second specification of Honda’s V6 power unit just in time for the end of the summer break. The Japanese manufacturer had chosen the Netherlands as the location to deploy its only engine upgrade of this season.
Already after the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July, the new engine was run in during a filming day. However, when the new unit was seriously challenged for the first time on Friday in Zandvoort, both drivers faced newly emerged drivability issues.
Alonso went off track in turn 1 during SQ1 and complained about strong engine vibrations before qualifying 22nd and thus last – three seconds behind the leader. Stroll fared little better: although he placed ahead of the two Cadillac cars, he still ended the day in a distant 19th place.
“The practice was more or less okay, but in qualifying we had problems with the engine,” Alonso reports. “It surged under braking. Sometimes it was difficult to slow the car down because the engine delivered too much power,” says the Spaniard.
Rear wing does not deploy
In addition, the straight-line mode on his car did not work, so his rear wing remained closed on the straights. “The combination of both made the laps very tricky. When you brake and the throttle is open, it’s hard to stop the car,” he says.
Stroll had similar struggles with the behavior of his new power unit: “We had drivability issues, and there were a few other things that weren’t quite right. So we need to understand why that was,” says the Canadian.
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“It is extremely windy out there, but that’s the same for everyone. Tonight we will go through everything, look at the data, and try to make some improvements for tomorrow.”
Setback after Hungary jump
On the surface, Friday’s performance looks like a puzzling step back for Aston Martin and Honda, after the big vehicle upgrade in Hungary had actually brought the Silverstone team back into the middle of the Formula 1 field.
However, Honda had already factored in that with the new engine, much of the work to improve drivability that the Japanese brand had done at the start of the season would have to be redone for the latest specification.
“We have further developed our tools to optimize drivability. We have made good progress and were close to what we wanted to achieve,” explained Honda’s F1 project leader Shintaro Orihara in a detailed interview with Autosport, a sister platform of Motorsport-Total.com in the Motorsport Network.
“But when we introduce the Spec-2 specification of the engine, the combustion characteristics change. That is a big difference. And this also changes the engine behavior in cornering phases, which is why we have to rework drivability again.”
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