During Friday’s technical viewing in the Hungaroring pitlane, all eyes were on the revised Aston Martin AMR26 Formula 1 car. After what Adrian Newey has described as a “nightmare” and a “disastrous start to the season”, the team’s upgrade package for the Hungarian Grand Prix was eagerly anticipated.
According to the official FIA documents, the new package consists of 16 upgrades, including a longer and more slender nose, a completely new floor, revised sidepod inlets and multiple changes to the rear of the car.
According to Newey, however, this is not yet the complete package, with more developments in the pipeline for the first grands prix after the summer break.
“The provisional results are promising. It’s only part of the package, so we’ll have some more steps in Zandvoort and then further steps in Monza/Baku. So, it’s the first part of our planned upgrade,” Newey clarified in Friday’s FIA press conference.
How Aston Martin wants to restore “respectability”
Although this first step is already substantial, Newey still describes it as an evolution of the car Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have raced over the past 10 race weekends.
“It’s an evolution in as much as the chassis is the same, the layout is the same, and the front suspension is the same. So, it’s very much an aerodynamic evolution,” Newey said.
“We were very short on research time prior to launch of the car back in Barcelona in February. So, it’s really been a matter of taking a step back, trying to understand and go forwards with this package.”
Fernando Alonso had his first taste of the updated Aston Martin in FP1
Photo by: Guido De Bortoli / LAT Images via Getty Images
Newey does not want to attach specific targets to the upgrade, although trackside lead Mike Krack has already said the primary objective is “to go racing again”, given that neither Aston Martin driver has really been able to do so over the past few months.
“I feel it’s been very strong steps, but we’re clearly on a big catch-up game,” Newey added. “Is it going to make us the quickest car? Unfortunately not. But does it represent a good step forward from where we were? Yes, I believe it does.”
As Newey has explained before, that catch-up game has a great deal to do with his start date at Aston Martin and the fact the team was only able to use a 2026 model in the wind tunnel much later than its rivals.
“We made the decision, rightly or wrongly, to delay that for two weeks or so until we had our own tunnel commissioned, rather than starting in Brackley for a very short period only to move again,” he explained.
“So, that was the kind of timeline behind it. It was a big build-up process, I would say, so everything was just on the back foot in that sense. But you do what you can and you just get on with it.”
Regardless of the actual results, Newey says the first objective is simply to restore some respectability in the paddock.
The updated Aston Martin features a raft of upgrades
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
“These first races have been a complete nightmare,” the legendary designer admitted. “Hopefully, we can get at least a point of respectability now. I think that is the immediate goal and then from there we can try to keep moving forwards.”
What’s behind Stroll’s suspension failure in Hungary?
Aside from outright performance, the most important factor is ensuring reliability is up to scratch. First practice in Hungary looked worrying in that respect, as Stroll came to a halt with a rear-left suspension failure.
“As you can imagine, everybody is feverishly trying to understand exactly what went wrong and what happened as we speak,” Newey explained. “It’s only once we have an understanding that we can comment on what we do next, but we obviously need to have a position fairly shortly ready for FP2.”
Newey then clarified that Stroll’s issue was not necessarily related to the upgrade package: “So, the area involved has actually not been changed. We are short on spares because the cladding and so forth is different, so there are some minor changes in that area, but in that sense it’s very unexpected. As I say until we have an understanding it’s difficult to comment further.”
Alonso was also told over the team radio to stay away from the kerbs, though according to Newey that had nothing to do with the suspension problem.
“Staying away from the kerbs, that’s purely because we are acquiring aero data. And when you’re trying to acquire aero data, you don’t want the disruption of kerbs thrown in, the inconsistency that corrupts the data,” Newey said.
Lance Stroll ground to a halt in FP1
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
That said, vibrations also appeared to have returned to some extent, though Newey made it clear that he was not the right person to answer questions about them.
“The oscillations, yes, that’s really a question for Honda,” Newey added. “They can see it on the data and they are working on the solution.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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