{"id":836356,"date":"2026-07-31T20:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/836356\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T20:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T20:25:12","slug":"aston-martin-rejects-carlos-sainz-theory-on-amr26-b-spec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/836356\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Martin rejects Carlos Sainz theory on AMR26 B-spec"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos Sainz<\/a>, in a rallying cry to his Williams<\/a> team, claimed that Aston Martin now has the best chassis in the midfield following its Hungarian GP upgrades.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin<\/a>\u2018s chief trackside officer Mike Krack decisively dismissed Sainz\u2019s claim. That is despite a Fernando Alonso data discovery which offered credit to what Sainz had said.<\/p>\n

Mike Krack rejects Carlos Sainz verdict on Aston Martin<\/p>\n

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for news you can trust.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin introduced its major upgrade package for the AMR26 in Hungary, as advertised. It was a 16-part package.<\/p>\n

It was a positive introduction. Aston Martin was able to leapfrog Cadillac and Williams, while mixing it up with Haas and Alpine at the Hungaroring.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin\u2019s gain was Williams\u2019 pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cAston went from having a worse downforce, worse chassis than us to having the best midfield downforce right now,\u201d Williams driver Sainz claimed to PlanetF1.com in Hungary.<\/p>\n

Sainz\u2019s comments were put to Krack, who did not share that opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so,\u201d he replied to PlanetF1.com and others, dismissing Sainz\u2019s claim.<\/p>\n

It was an intriguing response, considering what Alonso had said after driving the B-spec AMR26 for the first time on Hungarian GP Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to study the data more and see overlays. But I don\u2019t think there are any big surprises there, or any big deficit on the corners now to the top of the midfield, which is obviously the first of our ambitions, to be top of the midfield,\u201d Alonso had said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think on the corners we are matching that kind of pace. So we just need to keep up the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless of Aston Martin\u2019s true standing in the pecking order, Krack declared that the key goal for Hungary was met.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we came here and we said the main objective is to go back racing. I think we achieved that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe upgrade package works.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we need to bring the next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked how much potential has been unlocked from the new AMR26 package at this stage, Krack continued: \u201cThat\u2019s difficult to say. We\u2019ll know in the next events if we find more performance or not.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost a bit of time this weekend with Lance [Stroll] after the issue in FP1, so he didn\u2019t drive in FP2. So for sure, we missed a bit of time to optimise everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, we take it from here and we see what we can unlock in the next races.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to have a good look at the data, and then we\u2019ll see in Zandvoort if we can get more out of the package.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Aston Martin from PlanetF1.com<\/p>\n

Aston Martin half-season review: Adrian Newey warning shot as Honda readies Act 2<\/a><\/p>\n

Lance Stroll leads tributes after death of beloved Aston Martin team member<\/a><\/p>\n

Krack confirmed that the revised AMR26 \u201cis lighter and has more downforce,\u201d a golden ratio for finding lap time.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey stated that further tweaks are coming for Zandvoort. There, the upgraded Honda engine will also debut, following a Hungaroring filming day which saw the B-spec AMR26 and revised Honda engine combine for the first time.<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n

Read next: Honda reveals findings after Alonso engine \u2018oscillations\u2019 team radio<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carlos Sainz, in a rallying cry to his Williams team, claimed that Aston Martin now has the best…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[2495,64,63,4971,818,806,805,803,804,44,85],"class_list":["post-836356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-aston-martin","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-home-page","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}