Fernando Alonso is “proud” of Aston Martin after the team takes its first step towards competitiveness with major upgrade package at the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Silverstone-based team has endured a largely difficult start to F1’s latest era with its radical AMR26 concept.
Both, Alonso and team-mate Lance Stroll have suffered major reliability issues whilst also combating the car’s inherent weaknesses.
To make matters worse, the team’s first-ever Honda works power unit has been excruciatingly lacking competitiveness compared to its rivals.
Reflecting on the season so far, Alonso explained how the mindset within the team is still to gun for world championships, albeit with a pragmatic approach to fixing its niggling issues first.
“I don’t think that it changes anything to the approach that we had so far this year,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“We go to every race trying to maximise what we have in [our] hands.
“We are here to win races and to fight for championships. We didn’t start the season that way, and we will not be that way either, because we are just in a process of understanding these regulations and getting into the good path with the development of the car.”
Fernando Alonso is “proud” of Aston Martin amid major upgrades push at F1 Hungarian GP
10 rounds into 2026, the Silverstone-based team has only been able to score a solitary point, courtesy of penalties dished out post-race at the Monaco GP.
Alonso highlighted how the team’s lack of competitiveness is not a sign of a persistent flaw with its concept, rather, a consequence of staving off a major upgrade package towards the latter half of 2026.
“I think for the last for the first 12 races, all the teams, they opted for a different strategy, the more conventional one, to bring two or three tenths of a second every two or three races,” Alonso added.
“Then you ended up with one second or one second and a half by race 10 or race 12. We didn’t do that, so we fell a little bit behind everyone else on the on the grid. And now we will try to catch up all in once.
For the race weekend at the Hungaroring, Adrian Newey has essentially devised B-spec AMR26 to kick off Aston Martin’s first batch of upgrades.
Rather than targeting incremental revisions to its concept, the upgrade package for the Hungarian GP will fundamentally alter the car’s aerodynamic profile, suspension setups and potentially fix its weight issues.
Alonso is “optimistic” and said he is “proud” of the team for the work they have put in, behind the scenes, to get the upgrade package ready to be put through its paces, at Hungary.
“I’m obviously optimistic, I’m very proud of the team, of the job that they’ve done since the Bahrain test when we understood that we had a problem, and we had to fix a few weaknesses on the car,” he concluded.
“This is the first step into those fixes, but there are more to come.”
Aston Martin’s performance, this weekend, after the upgrades, will be a crucial reality for Alonso, with not only his future in the sport in question but also the fate of the team for this regulations cycle, heading into the summer break.
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