Racing
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Fernando Alonso retired from the Canadian Grand Prix after 23 laps because a recurring seat problem left him in too much discomfort to continue, with Aston Martin admitting its more reclined 2026 cockpit position may have gone too far.
The issue had already affected Alonso in Saturday’s sprint, and the team tried to address it overnight before the main race. That did not solve it. With Alonso out of the points and no weather interruption likely to change the picture, Aston Martin chose to bring him in.
“We had this seat issue where I feel more and more uncomfortable with the laps. The position doesn't feel the right one, and yeah, we were obviously out of the points, quite far from the points, and no threat of rain anymore. So we decided to stop the pain,” Alonso told Crash.net.
He said the attempted fix between Saturday and Sunday had failed. “We tried to modify a few things last night, didn't work, so we try to make a new one for Monaco.”
What makes the retirement more significant for Aston Martin is that the problem does not appear to be a simple one-off fit issue. Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack said the team’s 2026 driver positioning has moved toward a lower, more reclined layout as it chases the usual gains in center of gravity and reduced aerodynamic disruption from the helmet.
Krack said that approach may now need to be revisited. He explained that Alonso “has been uncomfortable for a while,” with the pain developing as a pressure point that worsens over a run rather than an immediate failure point. “We need to reconsider a little bit the positioning,” Krack said. “Maybe we have done a step too far, but it's something we need to check.”
He added that Aston Martin may have to move back toward its previous seating geometry instead of pushing the lying-down position any further. “I think we need to reconsider, maybe a little bit, going back to how we have been in the past.”
That leaves Aston Martin trying to solve more than a race-day irritation before Monaco. The team now plans to prepare a new seat for Alonso, and Canada became his third retirement in the first five races of 2026, a costly outcome on a weekend that had at least hinted at slightly better competitiveness before ending before lap 30.