Alonso reflects on ‘GP2 engine’ saga amid Aston Martin-Honda woes
Fernando Alonso speaks in a press-conference during pre-season testing in Bahrain.
A decade after his infamous “GP2 engine” outburst, Fernando Alonso insists Aston Martin and Honda’s troubled start to 2026 isn’t weighing on him any more than any other driver not fighting for the title.
Alonso is in his second stint as a Honda-powered driver in Formula 1, the Spaniard having previously teamed up with the Japanese manufacturer from 2015 to 2017 with McLaren when Honda returned to F1. Now, in 2026 they have reunited, again upon Honda’s return to the sport, this time with Aston Martin.
Fernando Alonso revisits ‘GP2 engine’ comment amid Honda struggles
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And as it was in 2015, things aren’t quite going to plan.
Honda’s power unit has suffered severe vibrations from its battery, so extreme they caused a piece of bodywork to fall off the car during pre-season testing, while Alonso found his hands went numb after “25 minutes” of driving the AMR26.
It is an issue that Honda is working to resolve, making big strides with its countermeasures in Melbourne, although Alonso said the vibrations felt the “same”.
The double world champion retired from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix after a stop-start race, with an issue sidelining him on Lap 15, only to return to the action 11 laps down before heading back into the pits to retire the car.
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Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey declared it was a “hard mental place” for the 44-year-old double world champion to be in as he made one final throw of the dice in Formula 1.
Alonso, though, downplayed that.
“Less tough than what do you think. I mean not ideal,” he said. “We all want to win. We have 22 drivers this year. One will win. 21 will be in a difficult and tough mental state, because for me to finish third or fifth or 17th, it really doesn’t matter much.
“I was lucky enough and privileged enough to live different years in Formula One and to have fun driving, and eventually, super lucky to have competitive cars for half of my career. And achieving more than 100 podiums in the categories.
“So now to finish, as I said, in any other position that is not first for me is the same pain and the same struggle.
“Obviously we are now in this journey with the team, which is not the ideal start, but it is the first year of this collaboration between Aston Martin and Honda, and we have to go through this moment in time, and I’m ready to help as much as I can.”
The Spaniard’s pragmatic approach to Honda’s struggles is in sharp contrast to his cries of frustration over the Japanese manufacturer’s “GP2” engine at the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix.
That Sunday, as the driver chased only his third top-ten finish of the campaign, Alonso was criticised for calling out Honda at its home race.
“GP2 engine, GP2!” is an iconic quote that became a part of F1’s folklore.
However, for Alonso, it was just a moment of pure frustration, one felt by everyone at McLaren, not just the Spaniard.
“About the 10 year difference,” he said of yesterday’s Honda frustration compared to today’s pragmatic approach, “I think I can see things now in a different perspective and a different maturity, but I don’t think that 10 years ago, things were that dramatic.
“This is Formula One, very mediatised sport. When you win a few championships just racing against your teammate, you know you are God. And then when you are fighting and having some difficult period, everything is magnified as well.
“And in a way, 10 years later, some of the things that people thought about me 10 years ago, when we had this situation, now they maybe change opinion, and maybe they think that I was right 10 years ago.
“Because for me, the biggest surprise was all these last few years thinking that 10 years ago, McLaren, Stoffel, Jenson, myself – because always people seem to remember only Fernando – but I think Jenson, Stoffel and McLaren, we were saying the same, and that project, the power Unit, was not mature enough when we started, which everyone seems now to understand that.
“But like, two or three years ago, it seems that I was crazy. 10 years ago, like criticising or something like that. It was, I think, a few frustrations on the radio, which, yeah, it was there, and as a double World Champion and a competitive driver, I was not happy with the situation. Well, I should be happy and clapping inside the car about the job.
“So, you know, now I think when everyone sees from the outside that situation, and they see the current situation, I think they are a little bit more friendly with us, and a little bit more they understand more the problems.
“And now what can I do in the team? It’s just work harder, try to help Honda as much as we can, allocating some of the resources that Aston Martin has into the engine, into the power unit, into the vibration problems, into the deployment issues.
“Obviously we are now in a different world in Formula One, with all the data available, all the GPS, all the analysis that we can have from the other teams. And we can allocate some of those resources to make Honda focus on one thing, and we can help them in some other areas on the power unit.
“So we are one team. As I said, it’s a bumpy start, but I hope you will not last for too long, but it will not be an immediate solution, either.”
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