One more chance? Alonso needs Aston Martin's Newey-influenced '26 car to be a winner

Fernando Alonso has waited eagerly, with more than a soupçon of impatience, for this moment. For all the many successes in his 25-year career at the top level of world motorsport, including his World Endurance Championship interlude with Toyota in 2018-19, the veteran Spaniard now has the chance to get his mitts on a Formula 1 car laden with Adrian Newey's fingerprints.

When Alonso made the switch from Alpine to Aston Martin for 2023, it seemed like an initially puzzling - then later, inspired - decision. That year's AMR23 was a handy bit of kit; draggy, sure, but brilliantly effective in conditions that rewarded high levels of downforce under traction. By following Red Bull's lead with regards to its aerodynamic concepts, the AMR23 was quick out of the box - leading Sergio Perez to quip that 2023's early-season top three were all driving Red Bulls...

The problem was that the car wasn't developed particularly effectively. A run of six podiums in the opening eight rounds soon petered out and, by the United States Grand Prix, Aston Martin's engineers had embarked upon a series of ill-advised experiments that led to awful results in Austin and Mexico. After going back to basics in Brazil, Alonso was back on the podium again following an indefatigable defence against Perez - but he hasn't finished in the top four since.

Aston Martin's difficulty with development permeated into 2024 and 2025. In its retention of a similar car concept through the next two years, in the meantime hoping to augment 2023's auspicious race pace with a dash of qualifying vigour, the team couldn't live up to its 2023 high-water mark. And Alonso, when disappointed, is hardly furtive with his complaints about perceived underperformance - he publicly vacillates between two states: extreme happiness in smooth waters, and palpable frustration when the wind picks up.

For Alonso, 2025's curtain couldn't fall quickly enough. "I think we are happy to say goodbye to this year," he contended ahead of the Abu Dhabi finale. "Obviously, we have been not as fast as we were hoping. The AMR24 was a tough and challenging season. The AMR25 was just the big brother of that AMR24. We are struggling. We don't hide from that. I'm looking forward to next year for sure."

Until now, Alonso and Newey had resembled ships passing in the night. It's well known that Alonso was close to entering the orbit of F1's modern-day design guru, having held talks with Red Bull on several occasions: after leaving McLaren for the first time in 2007, when simultaneously negotiating with Ferrari for 2010, as a potential replacement for Mark Webber for 2012 or 2014, and even as a potential Perez replacement for 2024. Alonso, in his wisdom, declined to go further than the exploratory talks. The wait for a 33rd F1 win, plus a third title, continues.

Alonso's early form with Aston Martin was hugely impressive - but it didn't last

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Even with Newey, success for Aston Martin is not guaranteed. Furthermore, even Alonso's longevity cannot outrun the reverberating tick of the hypothetical career clock. At 44, Alonso's physicality and mental bandwidth dwarfs that of some of his younger rivals, but no human body is impervious to decline. This is something he's well aware of, and he's well aware that 2026 might amount to a swansong tour of his greatest hits.

In his heart, there's hope that Aston Martin can deliver success this year; the embarrassment of riches in the technical department should be able to pull together something competitive. Yet, his head takes a more pragmatic view of the recent moving-and-shaking on display at the team's box-fresh Silverstone headquarters.

"We have Adrian Newey, Andy Cowell, Enrico Cardile; we have great people and great talent in the factory. We just need to put everything in place. People are just a few months into the system and we need one full season to glue everything together. That's the thing," Alonso added ahead of Abu Dhabi.

Alonso was asked if he'd considered the personal circumstances of this year's Australia opener, and it being the 25th anniversary of his debut at the same circuit - back in 2001 with Minardi. Perhaps the answer was laden with more mystique than the interrogator had planned on

"I don't know if Aston Martin will succeed. For me, it's a guarantee - the biggest question is when. That's what we all try to do, to make it as soon as possible."

There's a lot of moving pieces that need to click together for Aston Martin's wildest dreams to come to fruition. And even if the Newey-influenced chassis is excellent, Honda must deliver a strong powertrain package to complement that. Andy Cowell's new role after being stood down as team principal is to manage that relationship and also to act as the link point with fuel supplier Aramco - which at least boasts experience of producing race-ready sustainable fuels, having done so with F2 and F3.

And, of course, the team needs to dispel the lack of efficacy in its in-season developments, something that has plagued the past few seasons. With a new technical team and new infrastructure, the whole process of building up through the year should be a little easier, but this depends on whether Aston Martin's engineers have been able to crack the correlation code with its new resources.

Designer genes: Newey's influence is a key component of Aston Martin's future hopes

Photo by: Mark Thompson / Getty Images

Although Alonso accepts that the team needs a year to "glue together", he also knows that this isn't mutually exclusive with immediate success. That's where the hope lies: that Aston Martin's new elements can slot into place quickly and start delivering tangible on-track success. That's where the hope has to lie: because this might be Alonso's last chance.

It's the whole reason behind Alonso's decision to stick around for so long: the prospect of getting to drive a Newey-engineered car. With millions in the bank and a shelf bursting with trophies, he could have looked at the team's trajectory and chosen to call it quits - and few would have begrudged that choice. Yet, years of the sense that he's missed out on more title glory and a hatful of victories have bestowed upon him a slavering hunger to end his victory dry-spell, one that stretches back to his most recent win at 2013's Spanish Grand Prix. This came in his 201st grand prix start - Alonso has raced in another 224 F1 races since.

In the slipstream of the 2025 Abu Dhabi race, Alonso was asked if he'd considered the personal circumstances of this year's Australia opener, and it being the 25th anniversary of his debut at the same circuit - back in 2001 with Minardi. Perhaps the answer was laden with more mystique than the interrogator had planned on...

"Not yet," Alonso began. "I think Abu Dhabi next year, maybe it's more special."

The harbinger of a title, or of his own exit? Maybe both; Alonso will want to have his own retirement cake - and gorge upon it too.

The clock looms large on Alonso's illustrious F1 career...

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images