Fernando Alonso has rejected suggestions that his Aston Martin’s suspension damage was caused by excessive kerb usage during the 2025 Italian Grand Prix. Instead, the two-time Formula 1 champion has confirmed that it was in fact a freak failure caused by gravel hitting an exposed component, with the team now confirming changes have been made to reduce the chances of this happening again.
“No, not really,” he responded after being asked if he was happy that the cause of the issue had been found. “I mean, they told me on Monday already or Tuesday after the race.
“I knew that it was not from the kerbs. It was just a suspension failure. If the cause of it was not a production thing or quality control thing, it’s obviously better. That is just bad luck, a stone. That is a physical part of the car that was not strengthened up. But, yeah, nothing we can do now. Unfortunately, another bad luck and points that we lost in a race.”
Aston Martin has since confirmed to Motorsport.com that changes have been made to prevent a similar failure from happening again.
“I think it’s one in ten million cases. So let’s hope that in ten million races I have another failure like that.”
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing, Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing Team
Photo by: James Sutton / LAT Images via Getty Images
The Monza DNF compounded a season that has already been difficult for the 44-year-old. After a number of car failures, Alonso puts his lack of points down to bad luck.
“I mean, these things can happen, but for sure I think I remember 2022, which I think the car was not too bad, the Alpine car, and we were competitive. And I had 12 DNFs, always in the races that I was P5, P6,” he said (Alonso had six DNFs from grands prix during the 2022 season, and failed to start the Austrian sprint race due to a ‘full blackout’ on the grid ahead of the race).
“So I think that year the team counted like 55, 60 points lost. And this year we are already up to 22, I think so, yeah, it’s a shame that we cannot finish the races on merit when we are in the points. And then when we are slow, because we are uncompetitive, normally things are always smooth and nice until the chequered flag and we score no points.
“But this is the way it is and this is the sport, the nature of the sport. And as long as next year we have a good car, we are in normal luck. We don’t ask for good luck, but normal luck is okay.”
