Alonso: Hungary upgrade won't decide Aston future

Fernando Alonso says Aston Martin’s long-awaited Hungarian Grand Prix upgrade will shape, but not determine, his decision on whether to keep racing with the team in 2027.

Speaking at Silverstone to PlanetF1.com and other media, Alonso pushed back on Adrian Newey’s suggestion that the revamped AMR26 could be decisive. “I cannot say that it’s really connected,” Alonso said. “So it will help, no doubt. When I go on holidays the first of August, it will be nice to have a good race in Budapest just before the holiday, but it will not be the only point.”

That came after Newey, speaking on Aston Martin’s Undercut, made clear how heavily the team is leaning on the Budapest package. “It’s very important,” Newey said. “Fernando is really looking forward to the upgrade and, if it performs, we hope he’ll be in the cockpit for another season.”

The weight on the Hungaroring weekend reflects how difficult Aston Martin’s 2026 has been so far. Alonso has scored only a single point, and the team sits ahead of only the new Cadillac outfit after a start in which rivals have improved while Aston Martin waited for a broader reset.

That reset is expected to arrive in the form of the AMR26B. The updated car is due to debut in Hungary for both drivers, with substantial aerodynamic changes and a chassis much closer to the minimum weight. Newey described the expected gain cautiously, saying Aston Martin “foresees a big step” but would not attach numbers because the team’s simulation tools are “not yet sophisticated enough.”

Alonso’s own emphasis was less on one result than on what the package says about Aston Martin’s direction. He said the team has suffered this year in “very specific” areas and that if those weaknesses improve in Hungary, it would create “a very clear path and a good impulse” that could be carried into next year.

That makes Budapest more than a normal upgrade debut. Even if Alonso does not see it as the single deciding factor in his future, it will serve as Aston Martin’s clearest test yet of whether its 2026 recovery can become a credible foundation for 2027.