Fernando Alonso shares how he ended up hurting his back before the F1 Hungarian GP

Fernando Alonso believes the back muscle pain he experienced was caused by a muscle tear due to the seat in his car during the Belgian GP. Speaking to the media including Sportskeeda, the Aston Martin driver expressed relief at being able to participate in the Hungarian GP, especially given the pace of his car.

In a surprise announcement, Alonso withdrew from FP1 and was replaced by Felipe Drugovich for the session. Aston Martin cited a muscle injury as the reason. The Spaniard returned for FP2, where he was on the pace and set the fifth-fastest time. In qualifying, the two-time world champion also clocked the fifth-fastest lap, narrowly missing out on a top-three position due to late session track evolution. His lap was just two-tenths of a second off the pole and one-tenth off the McLaren drivers.

Fernando Alonso admitted it would have been a shame to miss the Hungarian weekend with the car performing so competitively. He explained that the injury, a muscle fibre tear, was caused by the seat at Spa and felt that Belgium would have been an easier race to sit out. With a two-week break following the Hungarian GP, the Spaniard hopes to use the time to rest and fully recover.

Asked by Sportskeeda if he was glad to not have sat out this weekend, given the pace of his car, Fernando Alonso said:

“Yeah, I'm glad obviously, you know, when the car is a little bit faster, you will not enjoy watching TV. Probably I will enjoy watching a Spa if I was about to miss that race, but you never know. And And I got hurt a little bit in the spa race with the seat and I have this muscle, tear muscle, tear fiber or something like that. So that needs a little bit of relax, you know, about two weeks. I don't have two weeks. I have it now four after tomorrow and I will enjoy summer a little bit of relaxing and recovering.”

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Fernando Alonso explains the reason for switching to the Imola GP floor on the car

Fernando Alonso suggested that both floor upgrades introduced on the Aston Martin, first in Imola and then in Silverstone, have been successful. However, he explained that the different specifications allowed the car to optimise its performance differently depending on the circuit. The two-time world champion also noted that the team’s wind tunnel correlation has been strong, and the upgrades introduced so far in 2025 have delivered the expected results.

Asked if there were question marks over the Silverstone floor and the reason behind reverting to the Imola spec version, Fernando Alonso said:

“No, no question mark. To be honest, I'm quite happy. I think the team is happy with all the upgrades we brought this year. You know, the Imola floor and then the Silverstone floor and the front wing of Spa. All three of them, they were just delivering exactly what we were hoping for and what we saw in the wind tunnel. So the correlation is very good. It's true that for some circuits and some speeds, some floors can work in a different way and some will be better in certain circuits and some in another. And I think we put the fastest car possible on track every weekend.”

Fernando Alonso has scored 16 points so far, while Aston Martin has a total of 38 points. Unlike the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the Silverstone-based team is far from its benchmark of fifth place in the standings and currently sits eighth. Similarly, the two-time world champion has not had his most competitive season and has been outscored by teammate Lance Stroll, who currently has 20 points and is ahead of him in the Drivers’ Championship. However, given Aston Martin’s improved pace in Hungary, this weekend presents a valuable opportunity for both Alonso and the team to turn their fortunes around.

Edited by Pratham K Sharma