Alonso, Stroll exit Mexico City Grand Prix in first five laps
NXTbets Pro | Published On: November 3, 2026
Honda cooling issues
Honda said the ERS cooling circuit was under more stress than expected at the high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, and that cooling problems with the system helped make the Mexico City Grand Prix a difficult weekend for Aston Martin’s drivers. The altitude mattered. Shintaro Orihara said the thinner air in Mexico City made turbo lag worse in the new power units, which no longer have the MGU-H that previously helped support the turbo. That left the package with less help in a place where air is already harder to manage. Honda’s view was direct. The company said it is already working on solutions and gathering data from the weekend, and Orihara said the lessons from Mexico will feed into work for 2027. The focus is on understanding how the ERS cooling circuit behaved under the circuit’s conditions, why the system came under more stress than expected and how the new power units reacted when the air thinned out. The speed in practice suggested more was possible, but the qualifying picture was stark. The car showed enough in the early sessions to raise expectations, then the problems emerged and the margin disappeared. For Aston Martin, the split between practice and qualifying made the weekend harder to manage, because the underlying pace was there but the reliability and systems issues kept breaking the flow. When a team is only a few tenths short and one of its cars has to stop early, there is little room to recover. The result was a Q1 exit for both entries and a race day that started from a compromised position.
Aston Martin qualifying
Aston Martin had shown decent pace in practice before the trouble arrived, but qualifying turned into a setback. Both cars were eliminated in Q1, and Aston Martin missed a place in the next segment by about four tenths of a second. Alonso stopped on track early in Q1 after the team detected an issue, and Orihara said Aston Martin also saw abnormal water-system signals on his car in qualifying. That left the team with two drivers outside the fight for a stronger grid slot before the race even began. The practice speed suggested more was possible, but the qualifying picture was stark. The car showed enough in the early sessions to raise expectations, then the problems emerged and the margin disappeared. For Aston Martin, the split between practice and qualifying made the weekend harder to manage, because the underlying pace was there but the reliability and systems issues kept breaking the flow. When a team is only a few tenths short and one of its cars has to stop early, there is little room to recover. The result was a clean but damaging Q1 exit for both entries and a race day that started from a compromised position.
Alonso and Stroll
The race did not turn the page. Alonso and Stroll retired in the first five laps because of cooling issues, and Alonso said the retirement was his seventh of the season. That made the weekend another reminder of how much reliability has shaped Aston Martin’s year. Mike Krack said the team needs to solve its reliability issues and keep morale up after a difficult season, and the post-race message matched the on-track outcome. Honda said it is already gathering data from the weekend, and Aston Martin and Honda both said they will use the Mexico data to prepare for next year. Alonso called the weekend a lesson for next year, which fit the tone of the team’s response after the early stop in qualifying and the quick exit in the race. Orihara said Honda wants to learn from the lessons for 2027, including the insights it can draw from turbo lag. That leaves the team with a clear task list, even if the immediate weekend ended with both cars out and little race mileage to show for the effort. The speed in practice was useful, but the final measure of the weekend was the cooling problem that kept Aston Martin from turning that pace into a finish.
