Alonso takes ‘very low’ driver quality shot after Albon US GP clash

Fernando Alonso said his Aston Martin was “destroyed” in a collision with Alex Albon in Austin, the Spaniard left with only half a floor after the impact.

Believing that a points finish was achievable without that incident, Alonso claimed that such clashes happen because the lower third of the grid is “very low” on “driver quality”.

Fernando Alonso takes aim at Albon after US GP clash

As Alonso turned in for Turn 11, a Haas on his outside, he found the front nose of Albon’s Williams on his inside. Alonso and Albon made contact.

The two-time world champion went on to finish sixteenth, a position ahead of Albon, and revealed after the race just how severely his AMR26 was damaged in the incident.

“I’d been hit by Alex in Turn 11, I think,” he said.

“That was the biggest damage. I think we lost like half a second or more.

“The car is destroyed. I saw it in parc ferme; 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 strong possibility, because we were running P12 with half a car.”

He added: “One side of the floor was there and one side not. I think that was quite impressive what the car was able to do.

“So yeah, it remains a little bit a curiosity of, with a full car performance, what we could have done. Probably P9, P10, points on merit today was possible.”

Alonso was ready to retire his car from the race at one stage.

“I think the floor was completely dropped. I mean, I don’t have floor on the left part, and probably it 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. I was ready to switch it off.

“But then they put on a new front wing, and I went out again. 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.”

Aston Martin has been engaged in battle with an increasingly struggling Williams team over recent rounds.

Alonso, very bluntly, expressed his desire for the Honda-powered outfit to continue progressing up the order.

“I think when you start at the back, there is this risk as well always.

“I think the quality of the drivers in the lower 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 bit higher up.”

Albon was substantially less fiery in his reflection on the collision.

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He also confirmed that his Williams did not emerge unscathed either.

“It’s always fun to race Fernando,” he said. “He’s strong, but he’s fair always.

“Maybe he thought I was a bit over the edge. I’m sure I’ll find out soon.”

He added: “I don’t know, but it felt like there was a car on the right side of Fernando, and he gave Fernando enough space as if he thought there was only one car on his inside.

“But then I was on the inside of Fernando, so then I think it pinched, and I tried to get out the way and get on the kerb, but I didn’t make all of it, so I imagine he got damage.

“I know I got damage. I was driving around with a broken wing for the race.”

With neither team scoring in Austin, it means that Aston Martin remains P10 in the F1 2026 Constructors’ standings, five points behind Williams, going into the Mexican Grand Prix.

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