Fernando Alonso approaches Monaco with "a little bit of hope"

Lance stroll fifteenth, four laps behind the winner Fernando Alonso forced to abandon, Aston Martin had another difficult weekend at the Canadian Grand Prix, the fifth round of the 2026 World Championship Formula 1The AMR26s continue to suffer at the start of this season, notably from a lack of power from the Honda engine, whose package will still need races to be fully reliable and above all competitive.

Hampered by a seat problem, Fernando Alonso was forced to retire, but before that, he once again demonstrated that his starting skills haven't disappeared into 2026. Starting 19th, the Spaniard climbed to tenth in the opening laps. Unfortunately, he couldn't maintain his position and logically dropped back as the Grand Prix progressed.

“More than the retirement, it was our pace that was frustrating! We got off to a good start but then slowly slipped down the order. We fell back to our natural position and we didn't have the pace to maintain the advantage of that good start. It was fun to gain positions at the start; we can take more risks than the others because we're outside the points anyway.”

The two-time world champion hopes that Aston Martin can achieve better results on the streets of Monaco for the next race of the season. Engine performance is less critical there, and it will be the first major test for the British chassis, designed by Adrian Newey.

"It was a better weekend than the first few; we were a bit more competitive. We'll have to see if we can maintain this momentum. Monaco is coming up fast; it's a very different circuit, very slow, where the engine plays a less important role. Perhaps that can give us a bit more hope for this round."

Lance Stroll, for his part, struggled at home all weekend, and the Canadian driver expected this round to be more difficult: “Nothing really worked. I struggled to get the tires up to temperature, so I had no grip, but I also lacked straight-line speed. It was a difficult day. We wanted to do better, but we knew it was going to be a tough weekend, so we'll try to do better in Monaco.”

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