Has Honda ruined Alonso’s final F1 masterplan?
The Race F1 Podcast
The Race Media Ltd
4.5 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 February 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The combination of Fernando Alonso, Adrian Newey and works Honda engines was meant to be the stuff of dreams for Aston Martin, but in testing the combination looked in big trouble and facing an extremely tough start to 2026 at the very least. So has Alonso's last chance to win again in F1 already slipped away, and if so what does that mean for the 44-year-old's future?
Edd Straw is joined by Scott Mitchell-Malm and Jon Noble to discuss the prospects of the Spaniard and his Aston Martin team, including where things have gone wrong, how much Honda are to blame, and what the recovery plan might look like.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Athletic |
| 0:02.0 | The Races |
| 0:02.6 | The Races on and Fernando Alonzo may have once had high hopes for 2026, but Aston Martin's testing |
| 0:18.1 | struggles mean he faces, at the very least, a tough start to the season. |
| 0:22.0 | So has his last chance to win again in F1 slipped away? |
| 0:25.1 | And if so, what does that mean for his future? |
| 0:27.4 | I'm Ed's draw and joining me before they head to Australia for the first race of the season, |
| 0:31.6 | of Scott Mitchell Mound and John Noble. |
| 0:34.7 | So, John, you're Fernando Alonzo. |
| 0:37.1 | You're about to head to Australia where you look like you |
| 0:39.4 | might face an uphill battle to beat the Cadillac drivers. You're 44. You've already hinted this is |
| 0:45.1 | your last season. What's going through your mind? I think low expectations. I don't think |
| 0:51.6 | there's any sense of him going to Australia thinking we're on for a great weekend. |
| 0:55.7 | There's going to be some strong fights and we can do something good. |
| 0:58.6 | It is potentially even pondering how bad is it going to be. |
| 1:03.2 | Is it going to be reliability dramas, headaches, not even getting to see what this car can do? |
| 1:08.7 | Or is there going to be even a glimmer of some performance? |
| 1:11.4 | So I don't think there's any anticipation that this is going to be a fun weekend. |
| 1:16.1 | Scott, to build on that a little bit, do you think that they'll also be a part of Alonzo's mind, |
| 1:21.9 | which is thinking, oh, what's the point? And just thinking that time has run out on him |
| 1:26.9 | and the Aston Martin dream just |
| 1:28.5 | isn't going to happen on a timeline that works for him. |
... |
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