Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was fortunate to see the chequered flag after being involved in one of the Lap 1 collisions during the 2026 F1 United States GP. He crossed the line in P16 as a second stop cost him a slightly better finish.
Costly collision and major damage for Alonso in 2026 F1 United States GP
Alonso’s race was compromised on the opening lap after contact with Alex Albon left significant damage to his Aston Martin AMR26. Having started P12, the Spaniard was looking to capitalise on what could have been a strong race, but the incident at Turn 11 on the first lap of the race, would ultimately derail his afternoon.
Alonso sustained substantial floor damage in the collision, losing a significant portion of the floor on the left side of his car. The Thai had tried a rather ambitious move as the Spaniard was already up the inside of Esteban Ocon himself. He ended up losing five spots on the first lap because of it.
Despite the loss of downforce, the two-time F1 World Champion remained competitive and worked his way up the order as pit stops unfolded, reaching P10 on the running order by Lap 26, before making his first stop two tours later.
However, the damage continued to affect his performance throughout the race. Nonetheless, he took encouragement from the pace with a rather broken AMR26. He had very comparable pace to Nico Hülkenberg in the Audi.
”I’d been hit by Alex [Albon]. That was the biggest damage, I think we lost like half a second or more. The car is destroyed… I saw it in Parc Fermé… half of the floor is not there. I don’t know how we kept on going and how we were semi-competitive. So I imagine if the car was in one piece probably today the points were a possibility, a strong possibility, because we were running P12 with half a car.”
Collision damage continued to compromise Alonso’s race
Despite the extensive damage, Alonso believed Aston Martin had the pace to fight for a points finish on Sunday afternoon.
”One side of the floor was there and one side not. I think it was quite impressive what the car was able to do. What remains is a bit of curiosity with a full car. Performance, as I said, what we could have done, probably P9, P10 points on merit today was possible.”
During the final round of pit stops, Aston Martin changed Fernando Alonso’s front wing. The Aston Martin driver revealed that he had considered retiring the car after the damage worsened and began affecting its handling.
”I think the floor was completely broken. I mean, I don’t have floor on the left part. I probably was opening something and I lost even further pieces of the floor. So, I couldn’t turn. So, we stopped. I thought about retiring the car. Obviously, the car was turning okay to the right and not okay to the left for the last 15 laps of the race. But, yeah, we wanted to finish and collect a little bit more data.”
Fernando Alonso criticises driving standards following collision with Albon in F1 United States GP race
Alonso also reflected on Aston Martin’s competitiveness compared to their rivals, acknowledging that performance could vary depending on the circuit and the influence of the power unit. He believed the team had missed an important opportunity to score points and close the gap to Williams in the fight for P9 in the Constructors’ Championship.
”I don’t think so. I think sometimes we are better, sometimes we are worse. It depends on the power unit, the power effect on certain tracks. We could have scored points today and maybe get close to them in the Constructors’ Championship. They make sure that we didn’t have any chance.”
The Spaniard was critical of the driving standards towards the back of the grid, pointing to his collision with Albon. However, he also acknowledged that they need to improve its performance to avoid repeatedly starting near or at the back.
”I think when you start at the back, you know, there is this risk as well, always. So I think the quality of the drivers in the low third of the grid is very low. As we saw today with Alex, so I think we need to improve the car and start a little bit higher up.”
