Aston Martin will arrive at the Hungarian Grand Prix, the last round before the mid-season break, with its largest 2026 upgrade package. For Lance Stroll, the new features will be crucial to assess whether the team has finally found a way to fix the AMR26’s problems and become competitive again.
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The new parts aim to address the car’s main deficiencies, while Honda power unit updates are only expected for the Dutch GP, after the category’s break. The package is so comprehensive that it can be considered practically a “B car,” featuring a lighter chassis and a new gearbox, both again subjected to FIA homologation tests.
When asked about the positive points of the AMR26 in its current setup, Stroll did not hide his dissatisfaction. “We can only move forward, so that’s positive. At the moment, yes, it has been quite terrible. There is nothing good, nothing we like about our car, no strengths, so we can only improve.”
“We have instability on entry and braking at medium-low speeds. And then we have this kind of aerodynamic downforce loss, that ‘front on the ground’ effect, loss of downforce on the front wing, where we simply lose grip completely in high-speed corners; so, there are some limitations,” he said.
Stroll also explained that some of these difficulties are even hard for engineers to identify from the collected data. “Some of these aerodynamic downforce losses are very difficult to spot on pressure gauges and to determine where they come from. So, I’m just trying to give a better idea to the team in Silverstone, who are working on aerodynamics and everything else, about what we’re feeling in the car. Sometimes, it’s hard for them to notice this just from the data.”
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About the new package for Hungaroring, the driver detailed what he expects to find on track. “We expect to improve some characteristics, with more downforce, for sure, but also to fix some of these bad aerodynamic traits we’ve had for a long time. We hope to get a more balanced car and simply a more enjoyable one to drive.”
“I think these are two different issues. We have many things to work on regarding drivability. We are lacking power, but we also have many balance problems, limitations, and simply downforce. We need to find much more downforce.”
Finally, the Canadian classified the Hungarian GP as the main test to measure the effectiveness of the upgrades. “I think Hungary is a good test. It’s not a power-sensitive circuit, it’s a chassis circuit, so that’s the test. If we’re still very slow in Hungary, then just the power coming in Zandvoort won’t solve all our problems. It’s not a circuit that depends much on power, so it’s one of those places where you need downforce and good balance. If we’re much more competitive in Hungary, I think that will be a good sign for the rest of the season,” he concluded.
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