The 2026 F1 Hungarian GP was an encouraging weekend for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who took the chequered flag in P14, his best finish in the last five races. It was an equally positive weekend for his teammate Lance Stroll, who finished in P13, his highest position of the 2026 F1 season.
On race day, a massively long first stint for the Spanish driver on softs cost him a probable 13th. Nonetheless, they beat an Alpine, as well as both Haas and Williams cars on merit at the chequered flag.
The Spaniard reflected on the event and shared his thoughts on the updated AMR26. He added that he hopes Aston Martin will be able to build on the strong momentum in Zandvoort following the summer break.
Fernando Alonso motivated by upgrade’s performance at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP
Aston Martin had brought their first major aerodynamic upgrade package of the season to the Hungaroring. The extensive list of upgraded components included a new front wing, nose, floor body and rear wing.
The upgraded AMR26 performed well, yielding immediate results with Alonso making his maiden Q2 appearance of the season in qualifying at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP.
Speaking on the upgrades, the two-time world champion shared that he is encouraged by the progress the team has made thus far. According to Alonso, the upgraded AMR26 provides Aston Martin with a new foundation to build upon in the latter half of the season.
“Yeah, I think so. I think it was a good step forward, both in quali and the race. So yeah, a new baseline to work with for the second part of the year.
“I think, as expected, more or less, the correlation is good, and the performance gains is there, and, as I said, I think it’s obviously early days with this new car. It’s a completely new car, new concept, so more to come maybe on the set-up, optimisation and things like that.”
The 45-year-old added that he was looking forward to the 2026 F1 Dutch GP, where Honda plans to unleash its upgraded power unit.
“So yeah, next race is also with the engine upgrade. It will be an interesting check in Zandvoort, you know, where we are and what we can fight for.”
Aston Martin’s collaboration with Honda
The 2026 F1 season marks the first campaign of the Silverstone outfit’s collaboration with the Japanese brand. Alonso then gave insights on Aston Martin’s close partnership with Honda, detailing the mutual accountability and support.
As shared by the two-time world champion, when Aston Martin faced significant aerodynamic struggles at the start of the season, Honda had assisted by masking those weaknesses with its power unit software. The team now plans to return the favour with the improved chassis.
“I mean, we are one team, we work together, we know our weaknesses, and we try to help each other. I think Honda was trying to help some of the weaknesses of the car at the beginning of the year. Now, with the chassis, we try to help Honda as much as we can and with also the consistency on laps to laps and deployment. I think a lot of help from Aston Martin as well on that regard, on that software department.”
Alonso added that both Aston Martin and Honda walk away from the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP motivated by the performance improvement at the Hungaroring. The Spaniard viewed it as the critical takeaway from the weekend rather than the results on track.
“So, I think, as I said, it’s a long way to go. We understand that, we are aware of that, but this hopefully is the first step. And both factories are gaining confidence and trust in what they do. So, that probably will be more important than anything else for the next few months.”
Progress throughout the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP weekend
Following FP1 and FP2 on Friday at the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP, both Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll had complained about severe car vibrations in their Aston Martins.
The Spaniard shared how the team was able to resolve this issue by altering the car’s set-up and switching to a newer power unit ahead of Saturday. He believes that the power unit in his Aston Martin on Friday was “at the end of the life” which resulted in the erratic vibrations.
Regardless, the changes were deemed effective as Fernando Alonso reflected on the team’s stronger outing throughout the remainder of the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP weekend.
“Yeah, they did improve. They fixed completely the oscillations for Saturday. And obviously, we changed the power unit for a fresher one on Saturday morning. So, maybe that’s the old power unit that is a little bit at the end of the life or something. But, yeah, Saturday and Sunday were good.”
