Aston Martin Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack believes the team has tougher races to come despite breakthrough performance at the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix.
After enduring a difficult start to F1’s latest era, the Silverstone-based team brought its first major upgrade package at the Hungaroring, just before the summer break.
It was a radical b-spec AMR26. Further incremental upgrades to the concept at Zandvoort led Fernando Alonso to a sensational ninth-place finish from 18th on the grid.
It was Aston Martin’s best result of the season so far; that said, it also exposed certain glaring deficiencies still at large with its package.
For one, the upgraded works Honda power unit is still massively down on power.
As a result, Krack believes that the car’s competitiveness at Zandvoort was more to do with how its upgraded chassis excelled with the unique layout of the circuit.
But with power-sensitive tracks like Monza and Baku up next, he warns that the team has “tougher races to come” and will suffer from a lack of competitiveness.
“Since Budapest we know that we’re a bit stronger in the race,” he said.
“I think Fernando said today our result will depend more or less on how long the straights are.
“So these were now two races where the straights were a bit on the short side. So we will have tougher races to come, but I think that this is part of the game.
“You have races where you’re strong, and you have races where you’re less strong. So it will be interesting to see how the rest of the season goes.”
The problems Aston Martin still faces with its F1 package
The 2026 regulations have been a steep learning curve for all the teams on the grid.
McLaren had visibly struggled with understanding its Mercedes power unit. Drivers like Max Verstappen had struggled to adapt to the inherent driving quirks.
While the others now have a relatively solid grasp of the rule set and its packages, for Aston Martin, the upgraded Honda PU and AMR26 chassis have essentially reset the clock back by almost eight months.
“We get to know this package more and more,” Krack said of the priorities the team had after Zandvoort.
“With the large package that we introduced in Budapest, it will take some sessions to learn how to deal with it and to learn how to set it up. And the same goes actually also for the introduction of the power unit now.
“We need to learn how to use it, we need to learn how to optimise it, and I think it’s going to take us a couple of events, but it was a good step forward.”
Alonso himself has conceded that Aston Martin has no hope for a points finish at the Italian GP, which is up next on the F1 calendar.
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