Aston Martin struggle for grip and consistency on difficult opening day in Monaco

Aston Martin endured a challenging start to their Monaco Grand Prix weekend, with both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll battling reliability issues, balance limitations and a general lack of competitiveness across Friday’s two practice sessions.

While both drivers completed solid mileage in FP2, neither was able to trouble the upper half of the timesheets, leaving the team with significant overnight work to do.

The morning session set the tone for a difficult day. Alonso brought out the red flag after the rear of his AMR26 stepped out as he exited the tunnel, sending him into the wall and ripping off part of his front wing. He managed to limp back to the pits, but the incident disrupted his rhythm and left him 20th in the classification.

Stroll, meanwhile, suffered a reliability issue that cost him early running, further limiting the team’s ability to gather data on a circuit where track time is invaluable.

The afternoon session was cleaner, with both drivers completing their programmes without interruption. But the underlying performance deficit remained. Alonso finished P20 with a 1:15.294, while Stroll also struggled to make an impression on the timing sheets.

Alonso summarised the situation bluntly: “It was a difficult day for us in Monaco. We are struggling for front grip and have heavy understeer on the car.”

He added that the inconsistency of the AMR26 made it particularly hard to commit around Monaco’s narrow streets: “It's very inconsistent and not easy to drive. Hopefully we can do some setup changes and improve the situation tonight.”

There was at least one small positive: “My seat is feeling more comfortable and it seems we have improved this.”

Team Ambassador Pedro de la Rosa echoed Alonso’s concerns, noting that the team had anticipated a difficult day — but reality proved even more challenging.

“We knew today would be challenging, but it proved tougher than expected.”

Aston Martin experimented with a range of setup changes across both sessions: “We tried a number of changes across the sessions and gathered plenty of information about where we need to improve.”

But the core issue remained the car’s unpredictability: "The car lacked the consistency and predictability our drivers need to push with confidence around this circuit.”