The Aston Martin Formula 1 team confirmed a 16-part upgrade for this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, which chief trackside engineer Mike Krack called “a significant aerodynamic upgrade and weight reduction.”
This is an important moment for the struggling team, as the results of this “B car” will play an important role in the second half of the season, when, just after the summer break, the overhauled Honda engine will arrive at Zandvoort.
The AMR26 upgrades that have already started in today’s FP1 session are the following:
- Redesigned rear wing with new winglets added to the top flap
- Modified rear wing end plates
- Redesigned engine cover
- New cooling louvers in the lower (detached) part of the engine cover.
- Modified twist distribution of beam wing
- Redesigned diffuser
- New inlets, exhausts and vanes at the rear corners
- Revised foot position and rear suspension fairing
- Revised floor design ahead of the rear tires
- updated front floor fence
- Revised lip and deflectors on the front corners
- Revised sidepod air inlets
- New front end plates with revised body, diveplane and feet
- new long thin nose
- new front wing
Graphics in FIA Instagram The post above shows more details of the above improvements.
“It’s very early days in terms of understanding this,” Newey said during a press conference about the package. “The provisional results are promising.
“This is only part of the package. We will have a few more steps in (Zandvoort), and then further steps in Monza and Baku. This is the first part of our planned upgrade. We are very short of parts, so we are being careful and trying to learn everything about it.”
Overall, the upgrades are expected to improve airflow, increase load and reduce drag. Aston hasn’t shared any performance targets or any numerical values for the lap time improvements expected from these upgrades, but it certainly expects its approach of dropping massive upgrades all at once versus adding new parts over several races.
Being the final race in Hungary before the summer break, it is make or break time for the Silverstone-based team, given their poor performances in the last few races. At Spa, both Aston cars were the slowest of the field, and this has been the case since the start of the European season. In Belgium, Aston was almost five seconds off pole position.
If these upgrades bring a positive change in performance, then theoretically, things should improve in the second half of the season, when Honda will also perform well at the other end. Unfortunately, things are not looking good so far, as Lance Stroll had to retire from today’s first session due to a broken rear suspension.
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