For the past few days, there has been a lot of buzz around the Aston Martin camp. the team are said to be bringing an entirely new car for the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend. The British racing team has struggled throughout the season so far, being no where close to any of the other F1 teams on track. Until the Hungarian GP, the team had not brought a single update to the car.
With Adrian Newey joining the team last year and working on the 2026 challenger under the new regulations, there was a lot of hype surrounding the team, some even suggesting that they could challenge for the Championship. But when all the cars hit the track for the first time this year, it was clear that the AMR26's pace was no where near the rest of the grid. Until now, both Aston Martin drivers were unable to put up a fight with any of the other cars. While most fans are expecting this to change with the updates this weekend, the reality may be a bit more harsher.
Aston Martin looking at a steep learning curve ahead
While we haven't received the full list of updates to the car yet, there is some speculation suggesting that every part except the front suspension will be new. If this is the case, the new updates may unlock some performance points. However, the team and drivers will still need time to understand the new car. With the team potentially changing almost every part of the car, from the driver's point of view, it is equivalent to changing teams in Formula 1.
In the past we have seen several drivers struggle while adjusting to a new car in a different team. We can expect to see something similar with both the Aston Martin drivers. But there is a big IF here. All the updates that the team will potentially bring for the weekend should work according to plan.
"The upgrade is a significant aerodynamic upgrade and a weight reduction," ↗︎Krack said,
"When you bring substantial upgrades, it's something that the track team will have to learn as quickly as possible. It puts a lot of emphasis on the quality of your data, on the quality of understanding your simulations. But we do not expect that we will get everything out of it in the first run tomorrow. I think we need to learn how to manage this and how to get the best out of it. It will take a bit of time."
While Mike Krack says that the updates are focused on improving aerodynamics and weight reduction, the power unit will not be receiving any updates. Throughout the season so far, Honda's power unit inside the AMR26 has been taking the big fat share of the blame for Aston Martin's performance. So the big question here is if the aero upgrade and the weight reductions can make up for the loss from the power unit compared to the rest of the grid.
Why didn't Aston Martin bring any upgrades until the Hungarian GP?
After the first few outings in the AMR26, it is likely that the team realized that they got the basic principle of the car wrong. They were faced with the fact that a complete overhaul needed to take place if they hope to compete this year. This would mean an entirely new car. If they had brought in one update every weekend, there wouldn't be much to learn as the new updates are not designed to work with the old parts. It made more sense to bring all the updates at the same time in order to analyze how they all worked together.
As it stands, Aston Martin have scored one point, credited to Fernando Alonso who finished 10th in the Barcelona GP. Apart from the one exception, the team have been no where near a points finish this year. This is not just because the car was incapable of it, it was also because the team decided to use the all the Grand Prix so far as testing session to gather data that can improve the car. In the next few races, we should be able to see if all the data paid off.
It will be interesting to see how the drivers and the team adapt to an entirely new car this weekend. Do you think that the team can turn things around with this upgrade package? Let us know in the comments below.
