Aston Martin has rejected Carlos Sainz’s assessment that it now has the best chassis in the Formula 1 midfield after the updates introduced at the Hungarian GP. Despite this, the team acknowledged that the new package met its main objective and believes there is room to extract even more performance in the upcoming rounds.
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The team brought a comprehensive update package to the Hungaroring for the AMR26, consisting of 16 new components. The changes allowed Aston Martin to surpass Williams and Cadillac and compete for positions with Haas and Alpine during the weekend.
After the race, Sainz stated that the rival’s development was significant. “Aston went from having less downforce and a worse chassis than ours to having the best downforce in the midfield right now,” said the Williams driver to PlanetF1.
The statement was brought to Aston Martin’s track operations director, Mike Krack, who disagreed with the analysis. “I don’t think so,” he replied, dismissing Sainz’s claim.
Despite the response, Fernando Alonso had shown optimism after driving the updated version of the AMR26 for the first time during the Hungarian GP TL1. According to the Spaniard, the initial data indicated that the team reduced the gap to the main midfield competitors.
“We need to study the data better and make comparisons, but I don’t think there are big surprises or a large deficit in the corners compared to the teams leading the midfield, which is our primary goal. I think, in the corners, we are keeping up with that pace. Now we need to keep working,” Alonso said.
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Krack highlighted that the main objective of the update package was achieved. “We came here saying the main goal was to be competitive again. I think we achieved that. The package works. Now we need to take the next steps.”
The director explained that it is still early to measure the full potential of the updates, especially because Lance Stroll lost track time after a problem in TL1 and did not participate in TL2, which reduced the time available to fine-tune the car.
“We will carefully analyze the data and see in Zandvoort if we can extract even more performance from this package,” he said.
Krack also confirmed that the new AMR26 specification is lighter and generates more downforce, a combination considered essential to reduce lap times. According to the text, the team principal, Adrian Newey, has already indicated that new updates will be introduced in Zandvoort, a round that will also mark the debut of the updated Honda power unit.
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