Feature

23 Sep 2025

Fernando Alonso on why Aston Martin Aramco has all the pieces it needs to win in F1's new era

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Fernando Alonso says he doesn't need to keep racing, but he does want to win with Aston Martin Aramco. Over a game of chess, the two-time World Champion muses about his future, preparing for one of the biggest and (probably) final F1 regulation changes in his long-standing career, and working with Adrian Newey on the team's new car – and how the legendary designer always seems to be one move ahead.

Full disclosure, and sorry to disappoint all the chess wizards and fans of Netflix's binge-worthy hit series The Queen's Gambit out there, but it turns out Fernando Alonso does not play chess.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that a multi-discipline World Champion and man of many talents with a razor-sharp strategic brain would be a whizz at the centuries-old board game, but when asked, tongue-in-cheek, whether 'chess grandmaster' was on his long list of accolades, he chortled, "Not at all. I don't play chess." And in doing so, put paid to perhaps the one slim chance Admin had of beating the two-time world champion at something – even if preparation for this interview was a last-minute, half-hour chess tutorial on YouTube and a hurried dusting of cobwebs in the deepest crevices of the cerebral cortex to a childhood memory of playing the game with an uncle.

No matter, the real reason for the chessboard is that it's a metaphor for where Aston Martin Aramco stands as the team approaches 2026 and one of the biggest regulation changes in the history of Formula One. Since Aston Martin returned to the grid in 2021, the team has rapidly grown in numbers, expertise and resources, assembling all the pieces needed to fight for World Championships.

Adrian Newey the queen (bear with us), with his influence spanning across the board and his ability to change the game instantly with his designs; CEO and Team Principal Andy Cowell and Chief Technical Officer Enrico Cardile the bishops: strategic, long-range operators shaping the team's competitiveness over the long-term; works partner Honda and title partner Aramco the rooks, pushing the team forward on the track with power units and advanced sustainable fuels; the AMR Technology Campus complete with F1's newest wind tunnel and simulator, the chessboard itself – the foundations of the team's operations.

And what about Fernando? Is 'El Padre' about to become the king in F1's new era? Enough with the chess metaphor. Let's ask the man himself...

Does Aston Martin Aramco now have all the pieces on the board to be able to fight for victory and say 'checkmate' in the new era of F1?

"I hope so. I mean, I'm pretty convinced about that. The only thing is when. That's probably my only question mark from this project.

"In my case, driving in the last couple of years of my career, obviously, I want to taste the success of the Aston Martin project. But I know that everything takes a little bit of time to glue all the pieces together. And that’s my only question mark.

"Aston Martin Aramco fighting for and winning the World Championship is more or less guaranteed in the future. We have everything that is needed to fight for a World Championship. Then, to execute the job and to win it, you need some external factors as well: you need a little help from the competitors [with results not going their way]; you need a little bit of luck; you need to execute every weekend well.”

"But let's say, in preparation for 2026, we have everything in place."

When someone says '2026', what's the first thing that comes into your head?

"Opportunity.

"With the current regulations, the gap to the frontrunners is a little bit too much, and the energy and the effort that you need to overcome that gap is too much for now – too much to do in 2025.

"I see 2026 as an opportunity. Everything will be reset in a way, and then it's up to us to do a better job than the others."

There are moments when, to understand Adrian, you need to use all your brain capacity.

Both you and Adrian Newey have said how you always wanted to work together, and now you are on the 2026 car. So what's it actually like?

"Yeah, he's an incredible person, the best designer in the history of our sport, and everyone in the team is learning a lot from him.

"Everything Adrian does, you try to understand why he is doing that, why he chose that direction, or why he's answering in that way, because there is always something to learn from him. Even from a simple answer that he can give to you in response to a question, that simple answer can be so clear to him, but why is it not for others?

"There are moments when, to be able to understand him, you need to use all your brain capacity. Even if Adrian only uses five per cent, for us, for normal people, we need to use much more. [Laughs.]"

If Adrian were a chess player, he would be many moves ahead, wouldn't he?

"Yeah, that's actually a very good example. You know, I think he could be a very good chess player."

And what do those chats about the 2026 car look like? Are you sitting on beanbags in Adrian's office, photos of his previous championship-winning designs on the walls, a bit of ambient music by Brian Eno playing in the background, incense burning, letting inspiration come to you – Adrian getting up every now and then to put the ideas on paper on his drawing board?

"[Laughs.] No, at the moment, our meetings have been very informal and general about the rules. We've not gone into deep details on something. Obviously, he's curious to know our feelings and our understanding of things. You know, maybe he's going in one direction and he wants to just tell us how that might impact our way of driving the car, and ask if we had any experience of that in the past and these kinds of things.

"But at the moment, he's very focused. He's always in his room, at his drawing board and just focused on delivering results. We will go into more details when the car is in a more developed phase."

What's it actually like as a driver when a major regulation change is taking place? Everyone talks about the cars and all the technical changes – we know that next year the cars will be smaller, lighter, have more electrical power, and less downforce – but you're the one who will drive it, you're the one who will get your hands on it first.

"Yeah, I'm pretty excited about it. But from the driver's point of view, we have to wait to see how the car feels. We've done a little bit of testing on the simulator, but no simulator can be 100 per cent realistic.

"We need to wait until January to jump in the car for the first time to discover how it will really feel: how the next generation of cars will behave in the corners, under braking, attacking the high-speed, the low-speed – all these detailed feelings are only possible when you drive the car. I'm very curious to find out what it will really be like.

"And as drivers, we always want the fastest car possible – it's never enough. Even when you have the pole position, even when you are P1, you're still finding places around the lap that you need to improve and where the car didn't feel great."

But you just know that the engineers are going to keep finding more and more performance in the early stages of next season...

"Absolutely. The evolution is going to be huge in the first couple of months, when you are discovering all the areas of the car that can bring performance.

"And you know, how we as drivers communicate feedback to the team will be so important next year: we need to clearly communicate what is needed to go faster. Because, as long as we are one tenth of a second faster than the competition, we will feel happy."

Even if your head is in 2026, your body and your lifestyle has to be in '25 and has to be racing.

Is the rest of this season a distraction? Surely all you want to do is focus on the new era?

"Yeah, it is an interesting question. I would say that this year is different. The second half of 2025 is different from the second half of previous years because our main focus and hopes are for next year and the new regulations.

"But in a way, it's good to entertain ourselves, you know, every two weeks at a Formula One race. We love what we do, and we love driving. So even if your head is in 2026, your body and your lifestyle has to be in '25 and has to be racing. It's a privilege to travel around the world to try to do the best result we can every two weeks."

Is there anything you're doing differently to set yourself up for success in 2026? Or is it a case of nothing really changes: you prepare to be the best you can be every year, so if the car is competitive, you're ready to deliver?

"In terms of driving style or specific training, I don't think we’ll be doing anything different to prepare over the winter. I think for us it’s more about being prepared for the longest season ever: apart from the [record-equalling 24] races, there are more pre-season tests happening next year.

"In winter, we used to have from the first or second week of December up to February, a little bit of free time to train and reset from the previous season. But this winter is going to be very short. Basically, it's only going to be from the middle of December to the first week of January because we will have to do the seat fit and all these kinds of things to be ready for the first test at the end of January.

"So, in that regard, I think it's going to be a little bit more about mental preparation and taking a different approach this winter to be ready to start from the beginning of January up to the middle of December, with no break [except for the summer shutdown]. And that will be demanding, let's say, from a driver's point of view."

What excites you most about the new car? Is there something you can't wait to try or explore?

"I think the energy distribution around the lap. It's going to be a little bit different. It's going to be a little bit more challenging to have the energy around the lap in the best places and things like that.

"I'm looking forward to seeing how it is for real and how it changes from circuit to circuit. It will also be an interesting topic next year: how it changes when you are racing in Monaco or Spa, or if you're racing at altitude – all these kinds of things will be different next year."

You're going to have high-downforce and low-drag modes, and a manual override boost button to give you extra power down the straights next year. These are new tools. Are you already thinking of clever ways you can use them? You've always got something up your sleeve, Fernando... Is this an opportunity?

"It is. [With a wily smile.] It is an opportunity to think differently from the others. When you are racing, we always have an optimal lap-time and an optimal way of doing things, but when you are fighting with other cars, and you have different pace in different sectors of the lap, you can maybe think a little bit outside the box and use these tools to your advantage."

Are you better placed for the change in the regulations than younger, more inexperienced drivers?

"I think so… Or I would at least like to think so. [Laughs.]

"I've driven very different cars in motorsport, from rally cars in the dunes to endurance racing to Formula One – and very different eras of Formula One. So, you know, whatever we find next year in the first couple of days with the car, I'm sure that it will have some similarities with some of the experiences that I had in the past. Hopefully, I can understand any problems or opportunities, and feed that back to the team: what could be needed to tackle these."

It's not about me now. I don't need to keep racing. I'm just here to help Aston Martin become World Champions.

Talking of feedback, tell us about your role in the development of the car?

"Well, so far, we have been driving the new car in the simulator and attending some meetings and discussions on the rules and how they will affect driving. You know, topics like the energy available in the lap, the active aerodynamics. These are all things everyone is familiar with, but at the moment it's only words, and graphs and numbers on a screen; all that information eventually will come into reality when the car is alive and when we drive it for the first time.

"Everything the team has been discussing and developing is rooted in the data – it's in their language, they've been talking about graphs and numbers. But when we jump in the car, we only have feelings, so these months are really important to try to make sure the team understands what we need."

So you're saying that you and Lance can feel things that don't show up in the data?

"Absolutely. That's why it's so important for us as drivers to be in the loop on how the car is developing and what ideas or philosophies we are taking in the development of the car right now.

"For example, when we jump in the car and we brake into Turn One [at the first test] in Barcelona, and we feel something strange or unexpected on the way into the corner or at the exit when we apply throttle, we can think back to what might be the reason why the car is feeling that way. And we can feed that back to the team because maybe it's something we can explore further and try to improve the idea that our designers originally had."

If we are not competitive, it will be very hard to give up without trying again.

You've previously said you would treat 2026 as your final season. Does that change if we are competitive – if you win, do you end on a high and ride off into the sunset? Because you've waited so long for this moment, Fernando, to have a car that can fight for victory, would it be hard to walk away if you were finally in that 'checkmate' position?

"[Pauses.] I have thought about it...

"But I will leave the decision for next year, and also how the team is in that moment and what they need from me. I'm open to helping the team as much as I can. It's not about me now. I don't need to keep racing. I'm just here to help Aston Martin become World Champions, whether that's with me behind the wheel or without me behind the wheel, that's the main purpose of this second chapter of my career.

“And yeah, I said I thought about it. If things go well, I think it's a very good moment to stop because, as you said, I've been chasing a competitive car and a competitive racing for many, many years, and if I have that I think it's a very good way to close my career.

[Long pause.]

"Let's say that if we are competitive, there is more chance that I stop. If we are not competitive, it will be very hard to give up without trying again."