Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey revealed Fernando Alonso is in "a hard mental place" amid the team's early struggles in the 2026 Formula One season.

The new campaign gets underway this weekend at the Australian Grand Prix, with the first two practice sessions having already taken place.

Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton led the way in first practice, while McLaren's Oscar Piastri finished ahead of Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and George Russell in the second session.

Alonso did not take part in first practice, but finished 4.9 seconds off the pace in the second, with team-mate Lance Stroll even further behind at just over six seconds.

Aston Martin are struggling with the reliability problems of their new Honda engine, while it was also revealed on Thursday that Alonso and Stroll were at risk of nerve damage due to the vibrations of their engines.

Newey admitted Alonso, who also had problems with Honda's engines during his time with McLaren in 2015-17, is in a difficult position ahead of the season opener.

"Fernando is one of the true greats," said Newey.

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"His ability, his talent, his all-round capability, he should have won, in truth, far more than the two championships he has to his name and however many race wins.

"Talking to him, he doesn't think he's suffering in any way. His eyesight is still very good. His reactions, he's very proud of the fact he was the fastest starter last year, in reaction time. So, he's an amazing person.

"We've been trying to contain our hopes because we knew this was going to be a difficult year, a build year.

"We started very late and on a very compressed cycle on the chassis side, but we knew that meant in the first half of the season we would be able to catch back up and we would very much have done without the distraction that's now caused.

"For Fernando, it's a hard mental place to be in at the moment."