Aston Martin's major update analyzed: why the competition is right to be worried

Aston Martin sits tenth in the Formula 1 World Championship but could justifiably be considered the weakest team of 2026 so far. They scored a point in Monaco only due to Sergio Perez's mistake, but in terms of pure pace, Cadillac has been quicker on multiple occasions.

Aston Martin had to wait for updates on the car for a long time. Together with his team, Newey deliberately chose not to bring several small updates, but one larger package. The first part of that was delivered in Hungary and it caused surprised looks among the competition. From being clearly the worst team, Aston Martin shot up the pecking order.

Looking at the first 10 Grands Prix of 2026, Aston Martin’s gap to the frontrunners is clearly visible. It also grew as the season progresses, because all teams showed with multiple updates to many weekend. Moreover, Honda's update is also still to come, with the changes expected to arrive at Zandvoort.

If you compare Aston Martin’s best qualifying lap at each GP with the pole position time, it’s clear the gap is growing. At the start of the season, the team on average just over 2 seconds behind, and that increased as the season went on.

From a relative deficit of around 2–3%, this rose to as much as 5% on power circuits like Silverstone and Spa-Francorchamps. The average over the first 10 Grands Prix is clear. Aston Martin was, on average, 2.99 seconds off the fastest time, a deficit of 3.59%.

In terms of race pace, the picture is even more painful. The Silverstone-based team loses 4.28 seconds per lap, which equates to 4.91%. Race pace also shows an upward trend throughout the season, although it is less steep than the trend in qualifying pace.

Fast forward to the most recent Grand Prix of the season in Hungary, Aston Martin taking a step in the right direction was clearly visible there. In qualifying, Fernando Alonso set a 1:19.808. That makes him 2.352s slower than Lando Norris’s pole position time, which equates to 3.05%. That is much lower than the 3.59% average over the first 10 races and significantly lower than the most recent races in Great Britain (5.39%) and Belgium (5.41%).

Looking at race pace, the step forward is even more evident. Norris had the best with an average of 1:24.507 at the Hungaroring. Lance Stroll was the quicker of the two Aston Martin drivers with a 1:26.951. That means the Canadian was “only” 2.444s per lap slower than the fastest driver, a relative difference of 2.89%.

Compared to the first 10 GPs, Aston Martin once again managed to gain considerable time. The race pace deficit over the first ten GPs was 4.28s, or 4.91%. That means the race deficit to the front of the field has been almost halved.

There are plenty of caveats to the result. It is, after all, only one race weekend to draw data from since the update, compared to the ten previous Grands Prix of the season. In addition, there were several outliers, such as China and Monaco, where Aston Martin was already relatively closer to the front.

But despite those caveats, the fear among the competition is easy to understand. Aston Martin has only brought part of the updates, with the rest set to follow in the coming races. It also takes time to optimize an upgrade package, something that is highly unlikely to have been achieved after just one weekend.

The fact that this update hit the mark also means Aston Martin has its correlation in the new wind tunnel in order. That makes the chance of subsequent updates being on target much greater. Add to that the fact that Honda will also bring substantial updates and you understand why drivers from Haas, Racing Bulls, and Williams are anxiously looking at Aston Martin.