Alonso: Aston Martin Now 'Trusting Its Tools' After Resolving Development Woes

Fernando Alonso Expresses Confidence in Aston Martin's Development\n\nFernando Alonso is optimistic about Aston Martin's trajectory, stating the team has significantly overcome its long-standing development issues. The two-time world champion believes the Silverstone-based outfit has largely resolved its correlation problems, where factory simulations failed to translate accurately into on-track performance, marking a crucial turnaround.\n\n### Why it matters:\n\n* Resolving these correlation problems is vital for both immediate performance gains and, more critically, for the accurate development of the 2026 car under transformative new regulations.\n* The team's previous inability to align factory data with real-world track performance severely hindered its progress through 2023 and 2024.\n\n### The big picture:\n\n* Aston Martin started the 2023 season strongly but then struggled with stalled upgrades and inconsistent development, a pattern that continued into 2024.\n* Legendary designer Adrian Newey had previously highlighted that the team's issues stemmed partly from "weak" tools, including its driver-in-the-loop simulator.\n* Recent back-to-back double points finishes in Hungary and the Netherlands indicate a positive shift and a potential corner turned for the team.\n\n### Alonso's perspective:\n\nWhen asked about the team's recent progress, Alonso emphasized the importance of trusting their development tools.\n\n> "To trust the tools that we have in the factory and bring things to the track that actually deliver what was expected from them is obviously a very good thing. We didn’t have that in 2023 and in 2024. So yeah, it’s good to go back to a more normal factory-track kind of correlation and develop the 2026 car next winter knowing that the tools are correct."\n\n### What's next:\n\n* Alonso hopes this newfound confidence and improved correlation will translate into more strong race weekends, particularly at tracks similar to Budapest and Zandvoort, such as Singapore or Brazil.\n* Despite the optimism, the team remains pragmatic, acknowledging potential surprises and committing to maximizing performance at every event.\n* With its development pipeline now seemingly back in sync, Aston Martin approaches the final races of 2025 with renewed optimism and a solid platform for F1's upcoming regulations in 2026.\n