Aston Martin’s dire start to the season has left Fernando Alonso in a “hard mental place”, says team principal Adrian Newey.
Aston Martin are beset by continuing reliability problems with their Honda engine which are preventing any meaningful running.
The Spanish two-time world champion was not able to run in first practice for the Australian Grand Prix because of a problem with his Honda power-unit.
He was able to do 17 laps in the second session but was 4.933 seconds off the pace.
Alonso, 44, has already been in a similar situation with Honda at McLaren from 2015-17, when the engine was unreliable and uncompetitive for three years before the two parties split.
Newey said: “Fernando is one of the true greats. His ability, his talent, his all-round capability, he should have won, in truth, far more than the two championships he has to his name and however many races wins (32).
“I’m not sure how old he is. Nobody quite knows what his age is. But he’s still super-quick, super-talented, super-sharp.
“Talking to him, he doesn’t think he’s suffering in any way. His eyesight is still very good. His reactions, he’s very proud of the fact he was the fastest starter last year, in reaction time. So, he’s an amazing person.
“We’ve been trying to contain our hopes because we knew this was going to be a difficult year, a build year. We started very late and on a very compressed cycle on the chassis side, but we knew that meant in the first half of the season we would be able to catch back up and we would very much have done without the distraction that’s now caused.
“For Fernando, it’s a hard mental place to be in at the moment.”
