Fernando Alonso remained upbeat after a tough qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix, even though his Aston Martin team finished at the back of the grid.
The Silverstone-based outfit will start from the rear for the third consecutive race, with Alonso lining up 21st at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday ahead of his teammate Lance Stroll.
This reflects a difficult start to 2026 for Aston Martin, as the team entered Austria with a noticeable performance deficit despite a short lap.
Alonso and Stroll were 2.859 seconds and 3.280 seconds slower than Kimi Antonelli’s Q1 reference, and trailed the leading Cadillac of Sergio Perez by 0.997 seconds and 1.418 seconds respectively.
The gap was partially narrowed thanks to upgrades introduced by the debutant Cadillac squad this weekend, while Aston Martin is postponing its own updates until later in the summer, meaning the performance gap is unlikely to close soon.
Consequently, Alonso conveyed a message of encouragement over team radio after qualifying, stating that the team is “getting closer” thanks to work underway at the factory.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
‘I remain positive,’ Alonso said after qualifying. ‘Within the team we face challenges this weekend: high altitude, a different circuit, and high energy consumption.’
‘Since free practice one we have made significant strides in drivability, gearbox operation, downshifts, upshifts, and energy consistency.’
‘The deployment has been somewhat inconsistent early in the season, with varying straight‑line and cornering speeds each lap.’
‘We focused on improving that, and this was the first qualifying session of the year where I had consistent deployment across all three laps, enabling me to push the limits in each corner because I could anticipate the approach speed to the next.’
‘Thus, it is about incremental progress, and Alonso found encouragement in the fact that his qualifying deficit was smaller than in all three practice sessions, where he had been over three seconds slower.’
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
‘I don’t know, the steps we made from free practice to qualifying were very encouraging,’ Alonso added. ‘We are at the back of the grid, and even Cadillac, our closest rival, made a big step here with upgrades. However, the team continues to work as if we were fighting for points or podiums. This behind‑the‑scenes effort is important.’
‘It is very difficult to stay motivated when you are consistently at the rear of the grid each weekend, but no one on the team is giving up and they keep working to improve the car in every session. From a driver’s perspective, that provides motivation not to give up.’
‘So that’s probably what I meant today, because it was positive to see the progress we made from free practice to qualifying.’
‘What we are seeing from Alonso represents a different approach to a similar situation he faced at McLaren in 2015, when he described a Honda power unit as “GP2‑level” in Japan.’
‘It would be easy for him and Stroll to voice similar frustrations given the Honda engine situation, but instead they are appreciative of the ongoing work.’
‘As I said, motivating the 1,000 people who work on the car is challenging when every weekend we fall further behind, but we stay united and everyone works flat out,’ said the two‑time champion.
‘They inspire us drivers, because we only see the negative news when looking at the timings, but behind the scenes there are meetings, debriefs, and intensive work at the factory.’
‘But when you see the garage, the meetings, the debriefs, the factory, you wonder how much more we need to push and improve, because they are still operating at a very high level, even if the results don’t yet reflect it.’
‘Therefore, we must keep that level and perform at our maximum.’