{"id":710063,"date":"2026-07-25T05:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/710063\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T05:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:53:10","slug":"aston-martins-giant-leap-alonso-will-fight-mclarens-if-newey-honda-f1-upgrades-work-perfectly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/710063\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Martin’s giant leap? Alonso will fight McLarens if Newey & Honda F1 upgrades work perfectly"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the so-far disastrously slow Aston Martin<\/a> gets its first performance upgrade in Hungary this weekend, what should our expectations be?<\/p>\n

First of all, it\u2019s a very significant reworking of the car. Although Adrian Newey<\/a> stresses that the core structure is the same, that\u2019s just the skeleton of the car.<\/p>\n

The surfaces the air is going to see are very different. It\u2019s also going to be close to the weight limit rather than 10-15kg over it. But the other important point is that it will not get its matching new Honda<\/a> power unit until after the summer break.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how the car has performed so far relative both to the front and the Q1\/Q2 cut-off time.<\/p>\n

Circuit
\n% off pole
\n% off Q2 cut-off time<\/p>\n

Melbourne
\n4.4
\n0.9<\/p>\n

China
\n3.4
\n0.7<\/p>\n

Suzuka<\/a>
\n4.3
\n1.9<\/p>\n

Miami
\n3.8
\n1.4<\/p>\n

Montreal<\/a>
\n3.6
\n0.6<\/p>\n

Monaco
\n4.6
\n0.9<\/p>\n

Barcelona<\/a>
\n5.5
\n2.4<\/p>\n

Austria
\n5.8
\n2.5<\/p>\n

Silverstone<\/a>
\n5.4
\n2.5<\/p>\n

Spa
\n5.4
\n2.9<\/p>\n

There are a couple of striking trends within those numbers. One is the step change in how less competitive the car has been since Barcelona, a reflection of how much everyone else is developing their cars as the Aston spec has remained frozen. The other is how Q2 is now so much further away than at the beginning of the season, at 0.9% off in Melbourne vs 2.9% adrift around Spa.<\/p>\n

Converting those percentages to global lap time deficits, the Aston has averaged 3.8sec off pole (at 1min 27.08sec compared to the Mercedes<\/a> at 1min 23.29sec). But if we take just the last four races, the Aston has averaged 4.5sec off pole and 2.1sec off making Q2.<\/p>\n

\"Mechanics<\/p>\n

Aston\u2019s car includes a total of 16 upgraded parts, according to FIA data<\/p>\n

\n Getty Images\n <\/p>\n

If the car has been running at 15kg over the weight limit so far and that has now all been shaved off, that\u2019s worth around 0.45sec. Meaning the aero upgrade will need to find around 1.65sec to put the car into Q2.<\/p>\n

Is that feasible? Given the scale of the upgrade and how far off the original car has been, it\u2019s just about on the outer edge of it, yes. \u201cWe\u2019re predicting a large step,\u201d said Newey last week. \u201cBut I\u2019m reluctant to put numbers on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newey said the Hungary update was just the first part of a multi-step strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only part of the package, so we\u2019ll have some more steps in Zandvoort and then further steps in Monza<\/a>, Baku<\/a>,\u201d Newey said in Hungary on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s the first part of our planned upgrade. We are very short on parts so we\u2019re being careful with it and trying to learn all about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an evolution in as much as the chassis is the same, the layout\u2019s the same, front suspension\u2019s the same,\u201d he added. \u201cSo it\u2019s very much an aerodynamic evolution. We were very short on time, research time, prior to launch of the car back in at Barcelona in February, so it\u2019s really been a matter of taking a step back, trying to understand and go forward with this package.\u201d<\/p>\n

If that 1.65sec improvement is achieved, that would still leave it around 2.8\/2.9sec adrift of the front. How much of that can the upgraded Honda<\/a> power unit (due to debut at Zandvoort<\/a> immediately after the break) find?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the so-far disastrously slow Aston Martin gets its first performance upgrade in Hungary this weekend, what should…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":710064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[235229,6538,372,49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-710063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-2026-hungarian-gp","tag-aston-martin","tag-formula-1","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=710063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/710063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/710064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=710063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=710063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=710063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}