Lance Stroll was pleased with the car’s competitiveness after Aston Martin introduced a significant upgrade package for the 2026 F1 Hungarian GP weekend.
Despite a difficult qualifying for Stroll—teammate Fernando Alonso had a more successful session, managing to progress to Q2—the Aston Martin duo finished P13 and P14 respectively in the race on Sunday.
Speaking after the event, the Canadian called the upgrade-based turnaround the most encouraging development the team had seen in a “really, really long time.”
Stroll encouraged by Aston Martin progress at 2026 Hungarian GP
Stroll lost much of Friday running following a suspension failure in the opening practice session, missing FP2 altogether. On Saturday he didn’t fare much better, abandoning his lap early and qualifying 20th.
Reflecting on his race after the 2026 Hungarian GP, Stroll told the media, “For sure, it was more running in the car and after not a good qualifying—we didn’t put the lap together yesterday, at all, with an aborted lap in Q1—it was nice to feel good in the car today and just execute a good race.”
While Aston Martin fell short of challenging the front of the midfield, they outpaced Haas and Williams on Sunday at the Hungarian GP, with Stroll admitting that it felt “really good” knowing the team “took a huge step this weekend.”
He continued: “We’re…not in the front of the midfield, but in the mix. We need to find a lot of power and just keep finding performance, more downforce, more power, just have to keep pushing forward.”
Race strategy explained
With Stroll starting so far back, Aston Martin abandoned the opening stint early, bringing the Canadian into the pits after just a handful of laps in an attempt to release him into clean air. The decision ultimately helped him maximise the pace available from the upgraded package to finish P13 at the flag, one position above Alonso.
Stroll explained there had been no issue with the tyres that prompted the early stop.
“No, just to get some free air, we were, you know, we had a really bad qualifying yesterday, so we were stuck behind the Williams and here it’s hard to overtake, so we just had to get some free air.”
Asked whether the race had helped the team better understand the new package, Stroll replied: “Yeah, for sure, getting more and more laps, we’re getting to learn the package more and I think we’re going to learn more on Monday after this week, just set up and everything.”
Despite finishing outside the points at the Hungarian GP, Stroll confirmed the morale is high at the team heading into summer break: “Positive for everybody, I mean, we took a huge step, we just need to keep pushing forward.”
Stroll expects more gains after the summer break
With more upgrades—this time focused on squeezing more performance out of the Honda power unit—already in the pipeline for the second half of the season, Stroll said he expects Aston Martin to find even more pace after the summer break.
“Really good,” he said of the upgrade plans. “It’s the most encouraging upgrade we’ve had in, I think, a really, really long time, maybe in the history of this team, so really good.”
Stroll remained optimistic but added that he doesn’t expect Aston Martin to challenge at the front just yet.
“We’re going to find out soon,” Stroll commented after the Hungarian GP.
“Zandvoort, the step we make with the engine, and then, it’s going to be a bit circuit dependent, I think even with the step of the engine…
“Will we be as quick as Mercedes? I hope, probably not so likely, so Baku, Monza, those power circuits will be more difficult.
“We have to try and take advantage of the circuits where it’s less about engine, more about the grip in the corners.”
