{"id":839364,"date":"2026-08-02T07:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T07:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/839364\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T07:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T07:32:09","slug":"aston-martin-b-spec-data-exclusive-after-carlos-sainz-theory-rejected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/839364\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Martin B-spec data ‘exclusive’ after Carlos Sainz theory rejected"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Aston Martin<\/a> AMR26 upgrade package in Hungary put the team back on a par with the leading outfits in terms of performance gained across the F1 2026 season.<\/p>\n

That was the discovery revealed by former long-serving Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley, who crunched the numbers on the B-spec AMR26. An interesting comparison from Smedley was that of the data of Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz, the latter having claimed that Aston Martin<\/a> now has the best midfield chassis. That theory was rejected by Aston Martin\u2019s Mike Krack.<\/p>\n

Rob Smedley presents data on B-spec Aston Martin AMR26<\/p>\n

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

Aston Martin\u2019s revamped AMR26, with its 16 updates, hit the track at the Hungarian Grand Prix and yielded positive results.<\/p>\n

Alonso made it into Q2, while come Sunday, Lance Stroll secured a P13 finish, one place up the road from Alonso.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin leapfrogged Cadillac and seemingly also Williams with its package. That led to Sainz claiming, in a rallying call to his Williams team, that Aston Martin now had the best chassis in the midfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so,\u201d was the to-the-point response from Aston Martin\u2019s chief trackside officer Mike Krack, when Sainz\u2019s claim was put to him by PlanetF1.com and other media outlets.<\/p>\n

The data of Sainz and Alonso from Hungary made for interesting viewing, as Smedley, via the High Performance Racing podcast, presented what was billed as his \u2018exclusive data\u2019 on the Aston Martin upgrade.<\/p>\n

Smedley, best known for his stints with Ferrari and Williams, also has contacts within Aston Martin having started his career with the then-Jordan team.<\/p>\n

Smedley analysed two exclusive data charts. First was a speed trace comparison between Alonso and Sainz.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the minimum corner speeds, Alonso is much quicker everywhere,\u201d Smedley states.<\/p>\n

Smedley talks of \u201cmuch more downforce\u201d on Alonso\u2019s car compared to Sainz\u2019s Williams: \u201cIt\u2019s just a more stable and a better-performing car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where Alonso suffered at the Hungaroring, in comparison to Sainz, was down the straights.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you can see that with the Mercedes engine, the difference between the two engines, and probably the drag between the two cars as well, he [Alonso] gets killed on all the straights,\u201d said Smedley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all of the straights, Sainz is up to 10 km\/h faster, which is pretty impressive. So he [Sainz] goes through the corners slower, but he [Alonso] loses a lot of time, compared to the Williams, with the engine and drag of that car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Honda will look to provide Aston Martin with a boost when its new engine hits the track competitively at the Dutch Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

The B-spec AMR26 and updated Honda engine combined for the first time in a filming day following the Hungarian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Honda shall strive to build on a positive first step with the upgraded AMR26. Smedley\u2019s second chart shed further light on how Aston Martin\u2019s rate of development compared with the leading teams.<\/p>\n

Aston Martin took a different approach by holding out for this major package, while other teams introduced updates in stages through the first half of F1 2026.<\/p>\n

Smedley analysed a chart which showed the delta between pole position and Aston Martin in qualifying, race by race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you take the races up to Spain, but not including Spain, that deficit is 4.1 per cent,\u201d Smedley states. \u201cWe use per cent because the physical lap time is different from circuit to circuit, so you use per cent because it\u2019s more consistent.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Spain onwards, the top teams bring new packages, that\u2019s much closer to five per cent slower.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then, in Budapest, they were back to being 3.9 per cent.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo they\u2019ve made relative time up to everybody. And this is really interesting, because for the first part of the season, they were 4.1 per cent off, now they\u2019re 3.9 per cent off.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could say that it\u2019s within the noise, it\u2019s the same, or you could say they are 0.2 per cent faster, whatever.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it means is that Aston have basically kept the same pace as all of the frontrunners, which is quite impressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, what that doesn\u2019t include is the engine package, which is coming for Zandvoort, and Zandvoort is a real engine track. You need a very, very strong engine there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it will be interesting to see whether or not they can at least keep pace, because the engine deficit in Budapest, in that trace with Sainz, was much less of a problem than it would be in Zandvoort.<\/p>\n

\u201cAston really need Honda to step it up with this new engine package.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smedley agreed that Aston Martin has cleared Cadillac and Williams, but has \u201cnot yet\u201d moved ahead of Haas.<\/p>\n

However, he stressed that there is more to come.<\/p>\n

On top of the Honda engine upgrade, Aston Martin team principal and design guru Adrian Newey said that further AMR26 updates are coming for Zandvoort and Monza\/Baku.<\/p>\n

With its Hungarian GP upgrades, Aston Martin achieved what it anticipated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to come,\u201d said Smedley. \u201cWhat they\u2019ve really been looking for is a stable platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other good news is the correlation, so how much does the car give you on track compared to what you think it\u2019s going to do in simulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeaking with various people there, it\u2019s kind of done what they thought it should have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Eye-opening Adrian Newey comment sparks Fernando Alonso response<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Otmar Szafnauer, the former Aston Martin team boss, acknowledged that Aston Martin found the all-important correlation between the virtual and real world despite his own doubts about the new-look AMR26.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sceptical, but it did correlate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got out of that package what their simulation tools said they should get out of that package.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll declared his satisfaction with the first step taken in recovery by his team.<\/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: Lawrence Stroll offers first reaction on upgraded Aston Martin<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Aston Martin AMR26 upgrade package in Hungary put the team back on a par with the leading…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[2495,64,63,4971,817,845,813,816,818,32451,44,17165,85],"class_list":["post-839364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-aston-martin","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-carlos-sainz","tag-f1","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-hungarian-grand-prix","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839364","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=839364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}