Fernando Alonso has rarely needed an invitation to push a difficult car to its limit, but even the two-time world champion was left frustrated by his Aston Martin after a testing opening day at the Monaco Grand Prix. Where the Spaniard had hoped the slow, technical streets might flatter his machinery, Friday instead exposed a car that fought him at almost every corner.
"It was a difficult day," Alonso said. "Probably we were expecting a little bit more, a little bit easier around here. But unfortunately we found a tricky car to drive. The upshifts and downshifts are very tricky, and in Monaco you need that perfection into the corner, with the walls very close. So there is some work to do tonight."
Much of Alonso's frustration centred on the driveability of Formula 1's complex 2026 power units, an area several drivers flagged across the paddock as the championship settles into its new technical era. For Aston Martin, the problem was compounded by a chassis that lacked bite at the front — a fatal weakness on a circuit that demands absolute confidence on turn-in.
The veteran was unusually precise about where the lap time had gone. "It's very clear we need to improve the engine response and the engine behaviour around the downshifts, the upshifts and this energy recovery," he explained. "We have this complex system that recharges when we brake, and it has to interact with the downshifts and the way you approach the corners. On the chassis side, I think we were missing a lot of front end today, so we will do changes tonight to improve the front end and the front grip."
The 2026 cars are lighter, shorter and ten centimetres narrower than their predecessors, a recipe that makes them more nervous and quicker to move around beneath the driver — a particularly unforgiving trait on Monaco's barrier-lined ribbon. Alonso made clear his team would not be tinkering at the margins overnight, promising "a lot of changes" to the car before final practice and qualifying.
"Good setup. I went back to my 2025 seat position, exactly the same, so I felt perfectly fine today," he said. "Now let's focus on the performance."
With the comfort issue resolved, the burden shifts squarely onto the engineers. Alonso knows that around Monaco, where qualifying so often decides the race, a single clean lap can rescue a weekend that looks lost on Friday — but only if Aston Martin can deliver him a car he can finally lean on.
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*Originally published on [News Formula One](https://newsformula.one/article/alonso-tricky-2026-aston-martin-monaco-practice). Visit for full coverage.*
