Alonso calls 2026 F1 cars 'the worst ever' after troubled Monaco practice

Fernando Alonso condemned Formula 1’s 2026 cars as the worst generation he has driven at Monaco after a difficult Friday practice session at the Monaco Grand Prix, with Aston Martin ending the day 0.546 seconds adrift of Racing Bulls and 0.178s behind Cadillac.

“This is probably the worst generation of cars I ever drove in Monaco,” the two-time world champion said. “Hybrid cars should not be racing. It’s as simple as that.”

Alonso’s frustration centres on the energy management demands built into the 2026 regulations. At most circuits, drivers must lift and coast to preserve battery charge, removing the challenge from high-speed corners. Monaco, with its near-constant braking zones, offers no such relief — but it introduces a different problem.

“The way you charge the battery, with the braking and lifting off and things like that, obviously creates a lot of inconsistency into the engine braking of the car,” Alonso explained. “Sometimes you have less, sometimes you have push and sometimes not. If the battery is completely full, then you don’t recharge because the battery is full. So you don’t have engine braking. It’s like pushing.”

The AMR26’s specific mechanical issues are compounding Alonso’s broader discontent with the regulations. He has repeatedly flagged “random downshifts” as a problem, and was caught out again in Free Practice 1, losing control on the approach to the chicane and making contact with the wall.

“Now, we harvest a lot during braking,” he said. “The rear axle is just charging the battery massively on the braking. And then you have these downshifts that you need to interact with the engine blip to engage the next gear. There are a lot of things going on this year and it seems that we are not at the level yet.”

Beyond the driveability complaints, Alonso reported that the car suffers from “chronic understeer” that set-up changes during Friday’s running failed to cure. Aston Martin will need further experimentation before qualifying to find a solution on a circuit where track position is almost impossible to recover once lost.

The gap to the front of the midfield is a concern for the team heading into the rest of the Monaco weekend, with the AMR26’s inconsistency particularly exposed on a street circuit that demands precise, repeatable braking references at every corner.