‘It was great to witness’ – Alonso reflects on how Newey’s presence in Monaco impacted ‘level’ of Aston Martin team

Fernando Alonso has opened up on the “fantastic” experience of working with Adrian Newey trackside for the first time during the Monaco Grand Prix weekend, with the Spaniard suggesting that the designer’s presence elevated the “level” of the Aston Martin team.

After starting in his new position as Managing Technical Partner in March following his departure from Red Bull, Newey made his debut appearance at a race weekend during the event in Monte Carlo.

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And while he has made clear that his main focus is on the squad’s 2026 car, the Briton appeared to have an immediate impact on the team across the weekend, according to Alonso.

“It was fantastic,” the two-time World Champion said of working trackside with Newey. “I think the way he sees things on the car, even statically [in] the pit lane or at the grid, also in the garage spotting some things that we could have done better or do better in the future.

“But also his presence in the meeting room is always special – not intimidating, but I think the level of the team was higher thanks to his presence because everyone was more focused, more into the details of the car.

“People that [were] talking in the meeting, they know that they cannot say anything too far from the truth because he will spot it, so I think that was great to witness and I hope next year, with more races that he will come [to], we’ll keep learning from him and getting better as a team.”

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Newey has spoken openly about some of the challenges facing Aston Martin as they strive to improve, with the designer suggesting that some of the outfit’s current tools – such as the simulator – are “weak” and that the process of fixing this could be a “two-year project”.

When quizzed on how much of a hindrance this could be to the squad, Alonso responded: “I think all the simulators will have some kind of correlation issues to the real car.

“I don’t think that any team has a perfect simulator that you can trust 100%, because the car on the real track, real life, is very dynamic and it keeps changing always, corner to corner and session to session – [there are] no two laps on the weekend that are exactly the same, because the wind, because the temperature, because the traffic in front, all these kinds of things.

“So when you try to replicate that on a simulator, in a perfect and consistent environment, I think it’s very different. But I think it will take less than two years to fix our simulator. It’s not new, maybe it’s the first time that Adrian said in Monaco in the interview, but rest assured that [the] drivers, we mentioned it a couple of times already.”

For now Alonso’s focus is on his home event, the Spanish Grand Prix, as F1 arrives at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for Round 9 on the calendar. After Aston Martin brought a significant upgrade package to Round 7 in Imola, the driver is hopeful that more learnings will be taken from the new parts this weekend.

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“I think Barcelona will tell us a little bit more about the new package,” Alonso explained. “Imola was a step forward, for sure, but also we ran the medium tyres and I think that helped in Qualifying.

“And then in Monaco it’s a special place and Saturday is obviously a key part of the weekend, and we put some good laps [in] on Saturday as well.

“Barcelona, with a more normal weekend, we will discover where we [are] in terms of performance, but I think everyone will bring some upgrades here, especially on the new regulation with the front wing, and let’s see how much it affects everyone on the grid.”