Aston Martin Mid-Season Review: One point, one hundred problems
As we prepare to head into the second half of the 2026 Formula One season after a lengthy summer break, our Formula One writers take you through the state of play with each team on the grid. It has been a season to forget so far for Aston Martin. Disappointing results have troubled them for long, but the new updates in Hungary brought a glimmer of hope for the future.
In 2025, looking ahead to 2026, the team must’ve been expecting better results. They had signed a deal with Honda, who have won four championships in the last five years, to supply their engine.
On top of that, the team from Silverstone signed Adrian Newey as Managing Technical Partner. The world’s greatest Formula One car designer had built a championship winning car for four consecutive years before joining Aston Martin. Those two factors should have combined to make a successful car, but it didn’t.
How has Aston Martin fared so far?
Let’s rewind to the Barcelona shakedown, the first time that teams could test their challengers on a real circuit, rather than in a simulator. The team arrived a day late, missing valuable track time. The car wasn’t ready yet, and there hadn’t been time to paint it in the iconic British racing green.
The testing results couldn’t sugarcoat anything: Aston Martin would be a backmarker in 2026. The car was lacking serious pace, and would need significant updates to close the gap to even their closest competitors.
Fast forward to Australia. As expected after a disastrous pre-season, the team wasn’t off to a great start. For a while, it was doubted if the Aston Martins would even get out of the garage, as the cars were vibrating so much that it would cause the drivers serious harm if they endured that for multiple laps.
That issue was fixed before the race, but Lance Stroll still wasn’t able to qualify. Fernando Alonso was only able to beat the Cadillacs, who had their first ever race in F1, securing a 17th place.
Rather unexpectedly, Alonso had a great start, he launched himself off the line and soon found himself in 10th position. Unfortunately, the car gave up, and forced the Spaniard to retire. Stroll wasn’t able to keep up with the rest and wasn’t classified in the end.
Things weren’t much better for the team in Asia. They suffered a double DNF in China, and in Japan, Stroll wasn’t able to reach the finish line either. Alonso did see the chequered flag for the first time, but it was only for 18th place.
Into the Americas we went, and the Aston Martins were still struggling. Alonso managed a 15th place finish in Miami, but that was mostly because of four DNF’s. Stroll repeated the team’s best finish in his home grand prix, this time helped by six retirements.
Back to Europe then, back on home soil. It all didn’t matter. More DNF’s and last place finishes followed, except for one miraculous point in Monaco. That is still the only point that Aston Martin has secured in 2026.
Big updates were promised in Hungary, and boy did they deliver. For the first time in the 11 races we’ve seen this season, Alonso managed to get through to Q2. He secured the 16th position on the grid, only a tenth behind Esteban Ocon in 15th.
It won’t come as a surprise, but Aston Martin is second-to-last in the championship. Only Cadillac, with their maiden season in F1, are behind. This must be a huge disappointment for the team, as last year, they were at least fighting for sixth place halfway through the year.
Drivers’ Head-to-Head Performance
Both drivers have suffered their share of bad luck. Alonso failed to reach the finish line four times, and Stroll only managed to see the chequered flag four times. Even though the Aston Martins aren’t scoring many points this season, the head-to-head results still give an insight into the performances of each driver.
Being the oldest driver on the grid won’t bring Alonso down. He is comfortably beating his teammate, who is 17 years his junior. The Spaniard scored Aston Martin’s only point of the season, making him 19th in the standings ahead of Stroll in 20th.
In qualifying, Stroll was the fastest Aston Martin on two occasions, Alonso beat him the other nine times. The Spaniard is the only one so far who managed to drag his AMR26 to Q2. In sprint quali, the Canadian drew the short straw all four times.
As we have a look at race results, we see that both drivers failed to classify in Australia, China and Spain. As for the other races, Alonso was the quickest in six outings. Stroll beat him twice. It is woth noting, however, that the Canadian only finished four races. So he beat his teammate in half the races he has finished. In sprint races, Alonso leads three to one.
Best Moments
There haven’t been too many reasons to celebrate in Aston Martin’s garage. There was the crazy race on the streets of Monte Carlo. It will be remembered for all the penalties given out for speeding in the pitlane.
The weekend wasn’t off to a strong start for the guys in British racing green. In practice, they were far off the pace, swimming around the 20th position. It was no surprise that they locked out the last row of the starting grid.
The first half of the race wasn’t too exciting for either driver, until Stroll crashed on lap 56. The crash brought out the safety car, many pit stops were made, before a red flag stopped the race temporarily. When it had restarted, another crash stopped the race for the second time.
At the second restart, it was pure chaos at the back of the field. Helped by the many penalties awarded during the race, Alonso took the chequered flag in 12th position. However, Nico Hülkenberg got awarded a post-race penalty, and later, the stewards decided that Sergio Pérez made a false start.
These penalties promoted Alonso to a point-scoring position. It was a weekend full of ups and downs for Aston Martin, but they walked away with a point in the end.
It is difficult to call this the highlight of Aston Martin’s season, as they needed so much interference before they scored a point. They couldn’t have managed to take advantage of this situation if it had happened on any other track. But sometimes this is the type of luck you need.
Hungary could be debated as Aston Martin’s true highlight of the season. This is a race where they performed much better than before, all on their own strength. The team had been working on updates for a long time, and it was finally time to put them to use on the Hungaroring. They brought the most updates of any team, replacing 16 components on the car.
Stroll was still suffering some issues in the practice sessions, but Alonso immediately set the 13th fastest time. More importantly, they had closed the gap to the competition. Where the quickest Aston Martin was 5.7 seconds slower than the fastest car in the first practice session a race prior, was the gap only 2.4 seconds in Hungary.
To prove that the updates were working, Alonso managed to drag his car into Q2 for the first time in 2026. He did so comfortably, over a tenth clear of the drop-out zone. He couldn’t get further than 16th, but that nevertheless is the best starting position for the team this year.
Worst Moments
It was difficult to find the highlights of the season for Aston Martin, but it might be even more difficult to only pick one bad moment for the team. So far, the entire season is going very poorly. Every race, it seems like they hit a new low.
The bad luck already started before the lights went out for the first time. Showing up late for Barcelona Shakedown, being seconds behind in pre-season testing and the issue with the vibrations dominating the Australian Grand Prix weekend.
Both drivers failed to classify in Melbourne, and another double DNF in China meant Aston Martin was off to a particularly abysmal start. You have to give them one thing: they are at least consistent.
From Japan on, they at least started finishing races. They were still competing for last place, but they got to the finish line. Just when you thought that they were slightly improving, even picking up a point, the bad luck returned in Spain.
Stroll’s car had a malfunctioning gearbox, so they retired the car after only six laps. Alonso, who had gotten a new motor-generator unit and battery after he had qualified dead last, didn’t make it to the end of his home grand prix either. Two technical retirements in one race definitely qualifies as the worst moment of the year.
Looking Ahead
Although Aston Martin was off to an awful start in this new era of F1. Since the start of the season, the team has been working hard to find ways to improve performance. With the new updates they brought in Hungary, they have made a huge step forward.
Slowly but surely, the team from Silverstone is closing the gap. To play the devil’s advocate, the other teams are likely to further improve their cars as well. Hopefully for Aston Martin, the competitors won’t be able to find as much time as they did.
We are not even halfway through the season. There are still twelve races to go, so it is all to play for. For Aston Martin, the biggest target should be to not finish last, as dull as that sounds. They should try and improve reliability and pace, and pick up some more points along the way.
It might not turn out to be the season that Aston Martin had hoped for, but there is no shame at all in missing out on this season. With the new regulations, everyone had to build a car from scratch.
Some teams succeeded better than others, and given the preparation Aston Martin have had, Newey flying in halfway through the build and the issues with the wind tunnel, they are doing the best they can with the situation they were handed.
A seventh place in the constructor’s standings like last year might be a little bit too much to ask, but Williams and Audi aren’t too far away. Even Haas might still be within reach. If the team can get their head down and improve the car, results, and points, will follow. The season is still long, and positions are up for grabs.
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