MIAMI — Fernando Alonso has admitted that Aston Martin has found the start of the 2025 Formula 1 season “more difficult than expected” and is expecting another “tough weekend” at the Miami Grand Prix.
The 43-year-old Spaniard is 17th in the drivers’ championship and has failed to score a single point in 2025. It’s the first time since 2017 that he has gone pointless through the first five races of a campaign.
Aston Martin are seventh in the constructors’ championship, thanks to the 10 points scored by Lance Stroll in Australia and China, but just four points off the foot of the table.
“We are not as competitive as we want to be, we thought we’d be, but I think there is not only one theme,” Alonso told the media on Thursday ahead of a sprint weekend in Miami.
“There are a couple of factors that make the car a little bit difficult at the moment, in terms of pace, and maybe not as fast as some of the midfield [teams] that … raised the level and they are closer to the top four, and we didn’t make that step.
“We need to react, we need to do things better and hopefully in the next few races we have a step forward, but yeah, it has been more difficult than expected.”
Things don’t stand to get much easier this weekend in Miami.
While Alonso earned a podium at the circuit that snakes around the Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium during Aston’s strong start to the 2023 season, neither he nor the team have enjoyed much success in South Florida. Last season, Alonso scraped together a ninth-place finish from 15th on the grid, while the inaugural Miami Grand Prix saw him qualify and finish 11th while at Alpine.
Teammate Lance Stroll’s best finish in Miami was a 10th, achieved in 2022.
“I think Miami has not been really a good track for us, even in ’23 with a podium here, we only came alive in qualy, all the free practices were a little bit uncompetitive for our standards in ’23 at the beginning of the year,” he said. “And last year also, even if we started the season strong, especially in qualy, Miami was difficult. So yeah, let’s see if we change things this year, but it could be a tough weekend, for sure.”
Alonso said that he doesn’t envision the solution to Aston Martin’s 2025 struggles to be “straightforward,” but he’s not concerned about the longer-term effects of the team’s downturn in fortunes.
Formula 1 will introduce a new set of regulations ahead of the 2026 season that will see an increase in electrification and downsizing of the cars’ length and width. The rule change is expected to serve as a reset for the field’s running order, putting teams on equal footing as they come to terms with the new directives.
Aston also poached Adrian Newey, one of the most influential designers in F1 over the past 30 years, from Red Bull, appointing him the team’s new managing technical partner. Newey is responsible for the designs of 12 constructors’ championship-winning cars dating back to 1992.
“I’m not too worried about next year’s [car],” Alonso said. “I think this year is just a continuation of some of the problems that we found in the last two seasons, and we were not able to overcome some of the obstacles that we found.
“For next year, with the new regulations and Adrian on board, I think nothing of this year’s car is going to be into next year’s project, so it’s a complete reset, so I’m not too concerned for next year. And for this year, I think the fix is not as straightforward, and there’s nothing we can do from night to day.”
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