Aston Martin needed to go into the mid-season break on a positive note, and Fernando Alonso gave them just that with a P5 finish at the F1 Hungarian GP. Surprisingly, even the 44-year-old seasoned campaigner is not too sure what caused this upsurge in performance.
Aston Martin started the 2025 season in shambles as the car struggled with multiple issues that put it among the backmarkers. What was concerning was the slow progress with the car development as the season passed.
The aerodynamic genius Adrian Newey was to keep himself busy designing the 2026 car.
Unfortunately, the upgrade, most notably the floor, following his inputs, did not do much to make Alonso or his teammate Lance Stroll’s life any easier at Spa. They were on the back row.
However, as they moved on to cooler conditions at the Hungarian GP, the car suddenly came alive. Alonso was only a little more than a tenth of a second slower than pole position holder Charles Leclerc. Meanwhile, Stroll was right behind by less than two-hundredths of a second. The duo qualified in P5 and P6.
Alonso finds sudden uptick in performance at F1 Hungarian GP ‘concerning’
Finishing in the same position where he started, Alonso admitted it was the best he could’ve managed. “I think it cannot go any better than this,” he said in the print media pen.
The only odd chance of finishing higher was a possible collision between the McLaren drivers, who had an epic fight for the race win.
“Obviously someone told me the two McLarens were very close to each other at one point, that would have been even better, but it didn’t happen,” Alonso joked as it would have been a podium if they did. “But apart from that, I think we maximised the performance of the car yesterday in Quali and today in the race, not much more to do on our side.”
For a change, Max Verstappen found himself among the upper mid-field bunch at the Hungarian GP. Naturally, that made him a rare threat to Alonso. Reflecting on it, the Spaniard said, “The biggest threat was Verstappen on the two stops. But then he had some traffic, and at the end we were a little bit more relaxed.”
One would have expected Alonso to credit the upgrades for the uptick in performance. However, he points out that the differing performance between the Belgian GP and the Hungarian GP has left him and the team ‘concerned’.
“It is a surprise, definitely it is a surprise, it’s a nice surprise. The good thing is that we were competitive and we were fast. The concerning thing is that we don’t know why. So in a way we need this week at the factory to analyse exactly what are the differences between Spa and Hungary, what are the differences on the car as well, on the setup, on the aero devices that we were racing with.”
The only thing that stood out for the two-time champ was the front wing upgrade. “Obviously the main thing for us was the front wing that was new this weekend. If that front wing gives us that much of performance, that’s very good news, but I think that has to be understood at the moment,” he added.
Alonso reflects on the clever play with Russell
Despite the clear advantage from the upgraded front wing, Alonso kept his hopes in check. He was under no delusion and knew that fighting against the likes of George Russell in a much faster Mercedes would be a futile exercise.
Before his only pit stop, the Spaniard found the Briton on his tail. Determined to get the most out of his in-lap, Alonso cleverly picked the best spot to let Russell pass.
“Before my pit stop, I didn’t want to lose much time. So I wanted him to overtake me on the main straight, not into Turn 2 because then we both lose a lot of time. So I said I will defend this straight, and maybe in the next lap, I let him go,” Alonso concluded.
