After the troubled start to the 2026 season, Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey made the bold decision to focus on a major improvement package for later this year, rather than a series of smaller updates.
Inevitably, the strategy means that race weekends are currently painful exercises, especially as rivals are developing rapidly and advancing further, with newcomers cadillac in particular serving as a reference point.
Monaco gave an unusual boost when fernando alonso took advantage of the attrition and penalties for others to claim a point, giving everyone in the Aston Martin and Honda gives us some encouragement.
Barcelona, on the other hand, was always going to be difficult. The AMR26s were ranked 21st and 22nd, with spear ride ahead of his teammate, and then both retired from the race with mechanical problems, as Alonso started from the pit lane after adding power unit elements to his group.
It was especially frustrating for the Spaniard, who could at least enjoy the support he received, especially during the drivers’ parade.
“It was the best part of the weekend,” he said. “The fans were incredible throughout the weekend. It was a very, very nice feeling, a very emotional weekend for me, maybe the last one in Barcelona. So, outside the car, I enjoyed every minute.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t give them what they deserve in terms of results. So I hope that in the second part of the year we can improve the situation.” It was equally difficult for everyone on the team.
“I feel sorry for all the fans in green shirts in the stands and in the paddock,” admitted track director Mike Krack. “There were a lot of them. When we came in and out, it was so nice to see all those people in green shirts, and we couldn’t give them anything to cheer them up.”
The lack of recent progress and what seems like an endless wait for the upgrade package is difficult for everyone at Aston.
“It’s weighing on everyone,” Krack admitted. “You can feel it in the garage, you can feel it especially with the drivers. It is a very difficult situation. On the other hand, we have a strong leader, and the decision was made to improve at that moment, and all of us must commit to that decision, even if it is difficult.”
“And our job is to keep the motivation high, learn as much as we can. I think there are a lot of things we can still improve with this car. It will be easy to say, ‘We just go in circles and wait for the updates’. Some of the problems we have will still be there, so we have to solve them.”
That desire for knowledge gives a certain concentration for the next races. However, it also makes weekends like Barcelona even more frustrating – a couple of full race distances would have provided valuable data.
“You always learn new things, as crazy as it may seem when you’re three to four seconds behind, like you’re driving in a different category,” Barcelona’s Krack said. “But you still learn a lot.
“And I think we learned a lot about how we have to adjust our processes to get the most out of them, so there are some small positives.”
It is not easy to maintain morale on the field. However, Alonso knows that part of his job is to do just that.
“We need to stay together, for sure,” he said after Sunday’s race. “That point in Monaco shows that we are not going to give up today. Even if we were at the back of the grid, we were able to finish the race and take advantage of any opportunity that came our way at the end with Safety Cars, or whatever.
“And then we’re hopeful for the second part of the year with improvements and we’ll be able to be a little more competitive, and we’ll keep working.
“But we also need to see some results, eventually we need to see some of the improvements to make the car faster. Also, in the last few years some of the improvements didn’t make the car really fast like we wanted. So there are some things to prove with this year’s updates, and we all hope for the best.”