Aston Martin left Friday’s Formula 1 Hungarian GP with reasons for optimism. The team positively evaluated the debut of its new upgrade package, despite losing important track time after the problems faced by Lance Stroll in FP1.
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Fernando Alonso was the main spokesperson for the team’s enthusiasm in Budapest. According to the Spaniard, the car’s behavior matched expectations, reinforcing confidence that the new components are delivering the results predicted by the engineers.
“Today was better, and overall, exactly what we expected with our new package. This correlation shows that things are working correctly, and we can take positive points from this,” said the two-time champion.
Alonso emphasized, however, that Aston Martin is still at the beginning of the development process: “This is the first step for us, and there are more new developments coming in the next races. We are trying to understand the new parts, and there is more potential to extract overnight through car adjustments,” he said.
While Alonso accumulated mileage, Stroll couldn’t even participate in FP2. According to the team, there wasn’t enough time to repair the damage suffered by the Canadian in his FP1 incident, which significantly limited data collection from one side of the garage.
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Pedro de la Rosa, Aston Martin director, described the first day as promising. Despite the loss of track time caused by a suspension failure on Stroll’s car, the director stated that the numbers obtained so far are aligned with the expectations set before the weekend.
“It was a promising first day with the upgrade package, and the initial signs are encouraging, despite losing valuable track time on Lance’s car due to a suspension failure,” said De la Rosa.
The director continued, highlighting that the team has a solid foundation to continue evolving throughout the rest of the Hungarian GP weekend: “The data we have gathered so far is largely in line with expectations, which gives us a consistent basis to work on overnight. It’s just the first step, but it’s a positive start and offers us a good platform for the rest of the weekend,” he added.
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