Fernando Alonso finished thirteenth in FP1 at Hungaroring and nineteenth in FP2. It may not seem like a lot, but it embodies that the improvement Aston Martin promised for Hungary has worked. There was optimism in the team not only about the lap times but also about the correlation. What they hoped to see, they have seen, and that confirms that the wind tunnel is functioning.
However, not all news is positive. Lance Stroll suffered a suspension failure that sidelined him for almost the entire Friday, waiting for last-minute spare parts from Britain. And the worst part is what Adrian Newey has confirmed: the Honda engine vibrations have returned with the updates.
Aston Martin had to send urgent spare parts to fix Stroll’s car
Aston Martin promised two seconds of improvement at Hungaroring and they have delivered. Smiles spread through Fernando Alonso’s team on Friday afternoon because, beyond the results, the upgrades have worked exactly as they hoped. “There has been correlation,” Alonso stressed. It’s the first step on which to build.
Yet not everything was good news. Stroll suffered a strange rear suspension failure during the morning FP1, which not only forced him out of that session but also prevented him from taking part in FP2 in the afternoon because Aston Martin did not have enough spare parts, as they had warned.
According to the team, the suspension wasn’t one of the upgraded components, so they must study why it failed. But Aston Martin had to urgently charter a flight from the United Kingdom so that fresh parts could arrive to assemble Stroll’s car and allow the Canadian to continue competing in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Although the Friday’s main worry wasn’t that. The truly serious matter is that according to Adrian Newey, the Honda engine vibrations have returned upon contact with the new AMR26B. It was already visible from the onboard footage, and the Aston Martin team principal confirms that Honda is already working to understand it.
In any case, let us remember that Honda plans to introduce a new power unit at the next race, in Zandvoort, after the summer break. But anything they can glean now about why the new Aston Martin chassis makes their old engine vibrate will be useful data to work on over the summer to ensure it doesn’t recur with the new one.
Meanwhile, Newey already signals that new updates will arrive for Monza and Baku to the AMR26B package, which for now seems to be functioning.
Images | Aston Martin
