Aston Martin has had an uphill battle this season, and at the 2026 F1 Miami GP, Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack admitted that the team is behind others. Still, Honda’s Shintaro Orihara believes Miami helped the team gather more necessary data to move forward.
The team currently sits last in the Constructors’ Championship. With four races completed and many to go, the Aston Martin team has yet to score any points. Still, the Miami GP was a small step forward for the team, as both cars managed to finish the race.
Not an optimal performance at the 2026 F1 Miami GP
While other teams appear to have made progress, the Aston Martin team have taken many steps backwards this season. The F1 Miami GP saw the duo finish outside the points once again, with Fernando Alonso in P15 and Lance Stroll in P17. Sergio Pérez in the Cadillac split them.
When asked whether the performance at the Miami GP was the maximum execution, Krack reflected during a print media session:
“To be honest with you, we were hoping for rain because we know that the difference between the cars is quite large at the moment. From the top four teams, there is a big midfield and at the back there are two teams. So, the delta between the cars is so big that you end up in your position, which means no points for us. So, you hope for rain obviously, but then I think we managed yesterday to not be the last team as we were in Suzuka for example, and today as well.
“I think speaking of optimal execution, you ask me who is in charge of that, I will always say yes, but you need to be self-critical. There is certainly one of the other things in terms of pit stops, in terms of stop laps that we could have done better. So, you have to review this. I think in terms of results, I would have liked to have Lance directly with Fernando, in front or behind, that doesn’t matter to me, but ahead of both Cadillacs, which we did not achieve. I think it’s not the optimal that we have achieved but we speak about modest results here, let’s not forget that.”
Lessons learned from the 2026 F1 Miami GP for Krack and Aston Martin
While driver Stroll said that he did not learn much from the race, others in the team feel differently. Speaking about what he learned from Miami, Orihara stated:
“Of course, this is our first race running in new regulation. We gathered a lot of data and we found a lot of interesting things on our data. We can analyse energy management. Also, we saw interesting behavior in such a warm condition on power and drivability. We can gather all the data and we can improve our energy management strategy and also drivability. Especially here, we have a warm condition and also high humidity. That gives us good experience to improve our drivability.“
Indeed, the Miami outing was Aston Martin’s first full race run of the season. Australia saw the team being forced to retire, but they still tried to bring the cars back on track for a few extra laps. Then China ended with a double retirement before heading to Suzuka, where Stroll retired while Alonso was one lap down on the pack. With this in mind, the team has had limited data to work with up until the Miami weekend.
Data to move forward in races to come
Despite all their misfortune this season, the team can only hope the data from their full race run will be enough to turn things around. With the next race weekend in Canada taking place in about two weeks, the team will have had time to review the data in detail.
Similarly to Orihara, Krack reflected on the learnings from the 2026 F1 Miami GP:
“I can only confirm every lap you do, you learn. We need to still keep in mind that we are massively behind in terms of laps from the beginning of the season. I think the fact that you can race each other because you have the reliability, and also the fact that you can race with the competitor, is giving you additional information. It gives you something to improve your package for the races to come. We must not forget the tyres in that context as well. If you do not run, you have no experience on how the tyres behave in different conditions.
“We have seen in the sprint, we have taken a different choice. I think it was a good choice. Today, we have made good choices on the tyres, but you have to learn that and if you learn that, you can make your own choices. It would be easy to just do the same as everybody does and your car doesn’t work like that. From that point of view, I think with the learnings we have achieved over the weekend, we can develop the car and the package and the collaboration for that.“
Now that the team have more to work with, they will hope for brighter race weekends as the 2026 season progresses.
