Fernando Alonso says second part of 2026 Formula 1 season is when Aston Martin hits targets

The AMR26 represents a major shift for Aston Martin, as, aside from being their first Newey design, it is the team's first car to be powered by works partner Honda with a gearbox designed in-house.

But the highly anticipated green car did not have the best of starts to life, as it was late for the private Barcelona shakedown, while Aston Martin managed the least mileage in Bahrain's preseason test last week after suffering from reliability issues.

Moreover, Lance Stroll claimed Aston Martin need to find four seconds' worth of performance in order to be competitive while it also remains to be seen the quality of the Honda power unit.

Amid this bleak picture, Alonso remains confident, and all that is down to the presence of Newey, who is also the team principal of the team now.

"He [Newey] has the experience," the Spaniard said. "He has been in better times, tougher times, and I think we have a clear path of improvement.

"There are a lot of things that we need to unlock. For us, it's really the first test, to be honest, because missing Barcelona was not ideal. So, we are still going step by step, unlocking performance, and we've identified some areas that we need to improve.

"We said at the launch of the car that we go from maybe a little bit more difficult start on the back foot to a much better second part of the season, and I still think the same.

"The second part of the season is when we need to be where we want to be," the 2005 and 2006 F1 Champion pointed out.

While the AMR26's design turned heads when it hit the track in Barcelona, Newey said the car that races in Melbourne will be quite different.

Alonso confirmed this statement saying: "Melbourne's car is going to be very different. I saw some pictures, and Adrian said at the launch as well.

"Not only Melbourne, we have a guy that, after 30-plus years in Formula 1, has been dominating the sport all of those, so eventually we will have the best car. It's a matter of time, but we want to have that as soon as possible."

Asked about the areas Aston Martin need to work on, Alonso responded: "Surely, we need to integrate a little bit the power unit and the very first gearbox for Aston Martin.

"But I think the aero performance and the engine performance will still dominate the lap time, so it's where we need to unlock more performance.

"We still don't know exactly where we are; maybe next week we have a clear picture, but at the moment those are the two areas that we are concentrated on," the 44-year-old concluded. (Source: Sky Sports F1)