May 3 (GMM) Fernando Alonso says Aston Martin has finally solved its crippling vibration problem – but admits performance gains are still a long way off.
After a disastrous start to 2026 in the first season of the Honda-Newey era, the Spaniard confirmed the team has at least fixed its most fundamental issue.
“The best news is that the vibrations have disappeared. Completely,” Alonso said in Miami.
“It’s much improved and that’s the best thing about the weekend. The car is behaving normally now and there are no problems finishing the race or reliability concerns.”
However, the relief comes with a major caveat.
“It will be after the summer,” Alonso admitted, when asked when the green car will finally benefit from a significant pace boost.
“It won’t happen until race 14. There’s a long way to go.”
“Until the problems are understood and solved, it’s difficult to have the confidence to make progress in performance. The solution to the vibrations is a relief.”
The 44-year-old said the longer timeline for improved performance is “part of the plan”.
“There’s no point in gaining two, three, or four tenths of a second without translating it into results because the next car is a second faster.”
“We have to find a cost-limit strategy and things like that, and that’s the plan.”
Even with vibrations gone, new problems surfaced in Miami.
“I’ve had incredibly slow and aggressive upshifts, I’ve lost gear synchronisation in several corners, and then downshifting was very random too,” he said.
“Sometimes I had engine braking, and other times I had too much. It’s been too unpredictable.”
“We can’t race with this level of unpredictability.”
The broader picture also remains bleak.
“We have a few months ahead of us without performance, and that’s going to be the hardest thing to endure and the most repetitive,” Alonso said.