Racing
© Liauzh
Fernando Alonso said Aston Martin’s 16-part AMR26B upgrade at the Hungarian Grand Prix delivered exactly the proof the team needed, even if it left Budapest without points, and now the next test of that progress rests with Honda’s upgraded power unit ahead of Zandvoort.
The Hungaroring was the first race for Aston Martin’s B-spec package, and it immediately changed the team’s competitive picture. Alonso reached Q2 for the first time this season, Lance Stroll finished 13th and Alonso came home 14th, with both cars much closer to the midfield fight involving Haas, Alpine and Williams than they had been for most of 2026.
For Alonso, the result mattered less than the confirmation behind it. The Aston Martin driver said the package behaved as the team had expected from its factory work. “What we saw in Hungary was more or less as expected. The correlation with the simulation is good, and performance has improved,” he said after the race. “A benchmark has been created for what we’ll work on for the second half of the season.”
He said the gain was visible in the race even though the final result was compromised. Alonso lost ground after pitting during a Virtual Safety Car period, but he still came away encouraged by the early-race pace and by the fact Aston Martin could finally run with the midfield group again.
That did not mean the team had solved everything. Alonso said the AMR26B is still only at the start of its life and that its different concept leaves more to find in setup and optimization. Stroll also warned that Hungary, with its lower sensitivity to engine power, may flatter Aston Martin more than tracks such as Monza or Baku, where straight-line speed will matter more.
That is why the focus now turns to Honda. Alonso made the point with a smile, saying, “Now it’s Honda F1 that will feel the pressure!” He quickly made clear he was not singling out the engine supplier for blame, adding: “We are one team. We work together, understand each other’s weaknesses, and try to compensate for them.” Alonso said Aston Martin has supported Honda in areas including stability, energy deployment and software, just as Honda had helped cover some of the car’s weaknesses earlier in the year.
The next-spec Honda power unit is due for its first on-track validation in a 200-kilometer filming day at the Hungaroring before making its race debut at Zandvoort after the summer break. Multiple reports from the weekend said the revised unit is expected to bring roughly 30 to 40 more horsepower, a step Aston Martin hopes will add the straight-line speed missing from its otherwise improved package.
Alonso said that combination should give Aston Martin a clearer reading of where it really stands once racing resumes. “Now the engine upgrade will also come. Seeing how far it pushes us up will be a very interesting test,” he said, with the team’s Hungary breakthrough now setting up Zandvoort as the race that will show whether Aston Martin can turn renewed confidence in its chassis into a genuine midfield points fight.