Fernando Alonso thinks that Aston Martin probably “cannot even race” in Formula 1’s Monaco Grand Prix if it doesn’t address its most urgent gearbox problem.
While the tight and twisty nature of the Monaco circuit should mean Honda’s power deficit is not as badly exposed as at other tracks, Alonso said on Thursday that there was a bigger concern for him.
He said downshift problems – and especially some random gear selections at unexpected points – are a must-fix if the team is to be able to run properly.
“We have struggled with the gearbox since Miami,” said Alonso.
“Monaco is not the place to have a random downshift, and you have rear [brake] locking or [engine] pushing or something like that. Then you will crash into the wall, and the driver will look stupid.
“We are passengers sometimes when you put one gear down and you have push from the engine, like going on full throttle.
“So, that’s the thing that we needed to make sure that we make a step in the right direction in Canada, and Monaco will tell the truth.”
Due to the ease with which Alonso thought the drivers could be sent into the Monaco wall if they experience a random downshift, he even went as far as suggesting it could derail Aston Martin from running.
Asked whether there was hope of him overcoming technical deficits with the car to deliver a good result in Monaco, Alonso said: “If you have the downshift problem like we had in Miami, probably we cannot even race, because we will crash in one of the braking points due to a very different downshift type.
“If we have reliability issues like at the beginning of the year, that [meant that] we completed eight, 12 laps or something like that, then it doesn’t change much to be in Monaco. So we need to put everything together.
“It’s what we’ve been working on the last two weeks since Canada, because we know that it’s an important weekend and we are paying a lot of attention to this weekend and all the details.”
As well as the downshift problem outlined by Alonso, team-mate Lance Stroll also revealed that there are other gearbox headaches that will hurt Aston Martin in Monaco.
One of these relates to gear syncing, which is the process to ensure the alignment between the engine’s rpm, the transmission gear dog rings and the hydraulic actuator.
If they are not matched up perfectly, the transmission can struggle to engage the next gear seamlessly, which can cause power-delivery delays and slower shifts.
While gear syncing is needed most times cars go out on track, Stroll said Aston Martin has to do this every time the car goes below a certain speed.
“Every time we’re under like 40km/h, we lose sync of the gears,” he said. “So we have to re-sync gears.
“So here, for example, every time we go through Loews Hairpin, we’re going to lose sync completely of the gears.
“Then we’re going to have to sync those again, which is huge laptime [loss] every time you have to sync the gears.”
Alonso rolls back on seat position
Alonso will start the weekend with a revised seating position, after experiencing discomfort in Canada that forced him out of that race.
The issues that he has encountered are linked to a more reclined seat position in the ARM26 cockpit this year, which has been adopted by team principal and technical director Adrian Newey – who this weekend is due to make his first appearance at a race since the Australian season opener in March – in the pursuit of performance.
Following efforts made in Monaco on Tuesday to adjust his seating position and other parameters in the cockpit, Alonso said he has reverted to something closer to what he had last year.
“We have four different seat positions,” he said. “We changed a lot since Canada, so I’m very relaxed, optimistic that the problem of Canada, that I was very uncomfortable and with pain, it’s not [going to be] anymore there.
“We went back nearly to the 2025 seat position. So basically, we are in a known baseline now. No experiments.”
Alonso explained that the differences in position were tiny, but should help considerably.
“It is one or two millimetres of different angle or different pressure point underneath your hip area or whatever, and it can press some nerves,” he said. “Then you start losing sensitivity, and that was the case.”
Alonso reckoned that the seating issue he had was the sort of thing that is normally discovered in pre-season testing, but had not been noticed because Aston Martin’s pre-season mileage was so limited.
“The longest run in Bahrain [testing], I think it was eight laps,” he said. “So we’re still in Bahrain preparation in certain things in the team.
“But we were not fighting for the points or anything in Canada. I think if I was in the points, I would keep driving probably and you know, you keep up.”