Alonso: we have to wait longer for the engine

Adrian Newey’s wife has delivered a cutting response to veteran Spanish broadcaster Antonio Lobato after he challenged Fernando Alonso’s increasingly positive assessment of Aston Martin’s upgraded car.

Alonso emerged from Zandvoort praising the latest Newey-led chassis development, describing the car as "wonderful" to drive while making clear that Honda’s new Spec 2 power unit had not yet delivered the expected drivability improvement.

Lobato, however, argued that Honda was not solely responsible for Aston Martin’s remaining deficit.

According to comments circulated by Spanish media, the well-known broadcaster claimed the car remains aerodynamically slow, even ranking Aston Martin at or near the bottom of the field through different corner-speed ranges.

Amanda Newey noticed Lobato’s criticism on X and responded with just one word: "Who?"

The barb is particularly notable given Lobato’s long association with Alonso coverage in Spain, although their relationship has reportedly cooled in recent years.

Alonso’s own diagnosis after Zandvoort was quite different.

"We’re happy with the direction we’ve taken with the chassis, but we have to wait longer for the engine," he said.

"We’re missing that handling, that gear change, everything we had improved a bit with the first engine. We’ve kind of gone back to square one with this second one, so we have two or three races ahead to optimise it."

Honda itself has acknowledged the same weakness.

"Throughout this weekend’s Dutch GP, both of our new Spec 2 engines ran without any major reliability issues," chief track engineer Shintaro Orihara said.

"However, we recognise that there is still room for improvement in drivability, and we will continue to address this as a top priority for future races."