Aston Martin’s “random downshifts” leave Alonso wary of Monaco GP crashes

Fernando Alonso says Aston Martin needs to get its Formula 1 powertrain under control, as he raises concerns "random downshifts" could trigger crashes at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Alonso was noticeably hampered by the problem in qualifying at Miami, ending up 1.2s down on the Q2 cutoff time, as this long-lasting problem became more prominent.

The issue is gearbox-related but occurs within the wider power unit context, after Aston Martin switched from Mercedes customer engines to Honda works powertrains and started making its own gearboxes.

Therefore, this is a worry for the two-time F1 world champion as the series visits the narrow, twisty Monaco track, as he fears losing control of the AMR26.

“There are a couple of things on the car that have to be improved, and it will be a good test here in Monaco,” Alonso said. “One will be, for sure, the gearbox. We’ve struggled with the gearbox since Miami.

“And Monaco is not the place to have a random downshift, to have rear locking or pushing or something like that, because then you will crash into the wall, and the driver will look stupid.

“But we are passengers sometimes when you put one gear down and you have push on the engine, like going on full throttle. So that's the thing that we need to make sure that we made a step in the right direction in Canada, and Monaco will tell the truth.”

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

“It was a little bit better in Canada,” Lance Stroll reckoned, as Aston attempted to solve the issue. “But then every time we're under 40km/h we lose sync a few gears. So we have to re-sync gears.

“Like here for example, every time we go through Loews hairpin, we're going to lose sync completely on the gears. Then we're going to have to sync those again, which is huge lap time every time we have to sync a gear.”

Montreal did provide some progress performance-wise, as Alonso reached SQ2 in sprint qualifying, but the battle for points remained elusive.

The Spaniard is not upbeat about his chances to do better in Monaco: “Looking at the first races, I would say that there is no chance to score points, because I think the top 10 cars and top five teams are quite well ahead of everyone else.

“If one of the Alpines, which is the fifth team, doesn't perform well that weekend, there is always one [team] doing very well, like Haas in China, and some other teams that perform well that specific weekend – [Racing Bulls], very fast always, and things like that. So, to be in the top 10, I think it's very, very difficult and very hard. But I don't know, it's Monaco. We try to do our best weekend possible.”