Alonso sees real progress: Aston Martin’s upgrade package finally moves the AMR26 toward the points

The Asturian, 18th, believes Aston has made “a good step forward,” although it’s still early days. Next up, Honda’s power‑unit update.

Alastair Staley

Víctor Serrano

Budapest Update: Jul 26th, 2026 15:29 EDT

Make us preferred on Google

Fernando Alonso dropped from P13 to P14 after an unplanned stop under the Virtual Safety Car triggered by Oscar Piastri’s retirement, but the position change doesn’t alter the big picture: with a lighter chassis and a major upgrade package, Aston Martin is finally inching back toward the points.

The Spaniard qualified ahead of Bearman, Williams and Cadillac, and finished the Hungarian Grand Prix with Ocon’s Haas and Colapinto’s Alpine behind him. “It’s a good step forward, both in qualifying and in the race. A new base to build on,” Alonso said.

A new concept that’s starting to work

Alonso kept the same message he delivered Saturday: “I think, as expected, the correlation is good and the performance gains are clear. It’s early for a completely new car, a new concept, so there’s probably more to come in setup, optimization and everything else. In Zandvoort we’ll also have the engine upgrade, which will be an interesting test to see where we are and what we can fight for.”

The first phase of the AMR26 evolution — a lighter car with a lower ride height — has already delivered visible gains in two areas that were hurting them the most.

Fernando pits for mediums, and Lance stops again for more softs. 🔀

They are now running back-to-back in P14 and P15, respectively.#HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/YkUNczttn1
— Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) July 26, 2026

Sixteen new components, immediate impact

Aston Martin had been stuck at the back of the field for weeks. In Hungary, they reached Q2 and flirted with a Top‑10 finish, still about 12 seconds away with Stroll. The numbers show the jump:

In Spa, a longer and more demanding track, they were 4.1 seconds off the best Q1 time and 2 seconds behind Cadillac.
In Budapest, they cut that gap to 2.4 seconds — already in Q2 — and put more than half a second on Williams and Cadillac.
In the race, they went from being lapped twice (Alonso; Stroll didn’t finish in Spa) to being lapped only once on a shorter circuit.

That’s a meaningful shift for a team that had been stuck in reverse.

Honda’s upgrade: the next big question

The next step depends on Honda’s upcoming power‑unit update. Alonso explained the collaboration clearly: “We’re one team, we work together, we know our weaknesses and try to help each other. Honda tried to fix some of the car’s weaknesses early in the year. Now, with the chassis, we’re trying to help Honda as much as we can — consistency lap by lap, setup, everything.”

He also highlighted Aston Martin’s role: “Aston Martin has helped us a lot on the software side. There’s still a long way to go. We know that, but hopefully this is the first step and both factories gain confidence in their work. That will probably be the most important thing in the coming months.”

Progress.

The hard work continues. #HungarianGP pic.twitter.com/cn8VqfoUtV
— Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team (@AstonMartinF1) July 26, 2026

Vibrations? Fixed

Finally, Alonso confirmed that the vibrations — or “oscillations,” as Honda calls them — that appeared Friday with the installation of the 16 aero upgrades are no longer an issue: “Yes, they improved. They completely solved the oscillations for Saturday. We changed the power unit Saturday morning, so maybe the old one failed at the end of its life cycle. But Saturday and Sunday were good in that area.”

Now the team heads into a three‑week break — time to reset, recharge, and prepare for the next phase of development.