HONDA The Power of Dreams

15th

17th

On May 3, the race start time was moved forward by three hours in an unusual measure to avoid deteriorating weather conditions. At 1 p.m. local time, the formation lap for Round 4 of the 2026 Formula One World Championship, the Miami GP, began under cloudy skies, with ambient temperatures of 27°C and track temperatures of 36°C in dry conditions.

Following post-qualifying disqualifications among cars ahead, the two Aston Martin Aramco Formula One™ Team (AMAF1) drivers each gained one grid position. Alonso started from 17th on the grid, while Stroll lined up 18th. Both drivers selected medium tires for the start.

At the start, Alonso lost positions and completed Lap 1 in 20th place, while Stroll moved up to 16th. A series of incidents in the opening stages brought out the Safety Car on Lap 6. At that point, Stroll was running 15th and Alonso 17th. Racing resumed on Lap 12, with Alonso maintaining position. Stroll later lost places to pursuing cars and dropped to 18th after running off track on Lap 15.

Light rain occasionally began to fall during the middle phase of the race, leading teams to carefully judge tire strategy. However, the rain clouds ultimately avoided the circuit, and pit stops increased around the halfway point. AMAF1 brought Stroll in at the end of Lap 21, switching him to soft tires. He pitted again at the end of Lap 37 for another set of new soft tires before rejoining the race.

Alonso, meanwhile, extended his first stint longer than any other driver still running, delaying his tire stop until the end of Lap 41. He also switched to soft tires in an effort to increase pace during the closing stages.

After all drivers had completed their pit stops by Lap 42, Alonso was running 16th and Stroll 17th. Alonso gradually closed the gap to the car ahead and entered a close battle in the final laps. Both drivers used overtake mode, repeatedly running side-by-side and exchanging positions in an intense fight. On Lap 51, Alonso completed the overtake to secure 15th place and then pulled away to the finish.

Stroll took the checkered flag in 17th, marking the first time this season that both AMAF1 cars completed a Grand Prix distance.

“It's good to have both cars finish the race for the first time this season. We are still not where we want to be, but this weekend has allowed us to collect more data which we can analyze over the next few weeks before Canada. We have made clear progress in reliability, now our focus turns to performance. We need to keep working and be patient as a team.”

“It's the first time this season both cars finished a race, so that's a positive to take from Miami. We managed to get more mileage in the car and experienced fewer vibrations this weekend. In hindsight, our tire strategy didn't work out but from a reliability perspective we've made a step in the right direction. We now need to work on our performance-related issues. There are lots of areas for us to improve on."

“Our focus over the break was to work with Honda to improve the PU's vibrations into the chassis. That work has paid off and we have taken an important step forward on reliability this weekend. While that is a positive, there's clearly more we need to do together to improve our pace and unlock the potential of this package.”

“We can see some positives from the Miami weekend with both cars finishing all races for the first time and having no major reliability issues on our power units. We have found a way to reduce most of the vibrations, which helps us in securing more reliability, even under very warm operating conditions like during Saturday’s Sprint race.

“It is a small step in the right direction which will allow us to work harder on finding more performance. It will take time, but this weekend ticked a few boxes to help us move forward.”