The Hungarian Grand Prix was an enormous weekend for Aston Martin, with a lot expectation round the revised chassis package deal.
To the reduction of Adrian Newey and all involved there was clear progress. Having been final by some margin only a week earlier at Spa, Aston Martin jumped each Cadillac and Williams automobiles in Qualifying, and added Haas to the record in the race – in addition to one Alpine.
It was a formidable achievement given the distress of the previous six months. Attention now turns not simply to the revised energy unit which Honda is testing this week and bringing to Zandvoort, but in addition to the subsequent spherical of aero upgrades, as Hungary was simply the begin.
“I think we came here and we said the main objective is to go back racing,” stated Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack after the flag. “I think we achieved that. The upgrade package works, and now we need to bring the next steps.”
What the staff couldn’t have anticipated was the place the revised AMR26 fell in the midfield pecking order, and leaping three groups in a single hit was a welcome validation of the numbers.
“The expectation was a lap time improvement or a percentage improvement,” stated Krack. “And you by no means know what the competitors brings, so you can not say, ‘I will be in front of this one, or I will be behind this one.’
“So in these conditions it’s important to be factual, and persist with the numbers. And then comes the competitivity that’s clearly influenced by a variety of issues.
“If you remember on Thursday, I said, ‘Where will [we] end up? We don’t know.’ The midfield is so close that you cannot really say before.”
Hungary was removed from an ideal weekend, nevertheless. Lance Stroll suffered a worrying suspension failure early in FP1 and misplaced the remainder of the day, which meant that solely Fernando Alonso’s automobile was in a position to log mileage.
The potential was seen in Qualifying, when Alonso made it into Q2 and earned P16 – a landmark for the staff in 2026. Stroll was nonetheless taking part in catch-up, and caught out by a gust of wind he certified in P20.
The two drivers adopted very completely different methods in the race. Both began on softs, as has typically been the case in 2026. However, whereas Stroll pitted after simply eight laps in an try and get some clear air, Alonso ran a marathon 34 laps on that first set.
“I think we must not forget also the tyre side,” stated Krack. “Once once more, we have now taken different tyre decisions, and I feel they had been excellent. But that is a part of the entire sport.
“If you have a car that can do it, you take maybe less conservative choices on tyres, and then the whole thing works better. So all in all, this always goes hand in hand with the energy, with the grip, with the tyres you fit, with the strategies you choose.”
Alonso had the higher hand for many of the race, till he grew to become one among a number of drivers to modify to softs beneath the late Virtual Safety Car (VSC) triggered by Oscar Piastri. That dropped him behind his staff mate.
“We were flexible in terms of strategy, and we tried different things with both cars,” stated Krack. “They ended close to each other. We had also the VSC that was ending at the same time, where Fernando was in the pit lane, which lost certainly some seconds.”
After a run of poor reliability in races (and certainly Stroll’s Friday suspension failure) getting each automobiles safely dwelling in P13 and P14 was one other field ticked for the staff, with loads of information logged.
“I think it’s not a secret that we have had issues in the beginning of the year,” stated Krack. “And you do not solely have a look at the efficiency growth, however you additionally have a look at the reliability. Because no efficiency in the world will assist you if the automobile breaks down, and you can not develop your efficiency if the automobile breaks down.
“We said many times at the beginning of the year, the most important thing is that we finish races, that we learn driveability, shifting, energy management.
“And I think it is only [through] step by step learning that you can make the car reliable by fixing the issues that you’re having.”
So how far more is there to come back as Honda steps up a gear and the staff brings extra chassis upgrades?
“That’s troublesome to say,” Krack conceded. “We will know in the subsequent occasions if we discover extra efficiency or not. We misplaced a little bit of time this weekend with Lance after the problem in FP1, so he did not drive in FP2. So for certain we missed a little bit of time to optimise all the things.
“We take it from there, and we see what we can unlock in the next races. We have not driven much so far, so everything was new. We had issues, so we’re trying to have a good look at the data. And then we see in Zandvoort if we can get more out of the package.”
