aston martin has one point and i'm choosing hope
eleven races, one point, half the starts unfinished. a summer break report on my team, and the two reasons i haven't given up yet.
aston martin has scored one point in 2026. one. it took eleven races, fernando alonso and the streets of monaco to get it (he finished P10 there from 21st on the grid, which says more about alonso than about the car).
it’s the summer break, so here is the half-term report for my team. it is not going on the fridge.
the two cars have started 22 grands prix between them and been classified at the finish of 11. at six of the eleven rounds they’ve been the two slowest cars in qualifying, behind both cadillacs, a team in its first season. at spa alonso was two seconds slower than the slower cadillac. the only reason aston isn’t last in the constructors is that cadillac has zero points instead of one.
a year ago alonso and lance stroll qualified fifth and sixth in hungary. since then the team has added adrian newey as team principal and a works honda engine, and it still has the GOAT in the car. on paper it’s the best project on the grid. on track, the honda spent the early races vibrating so badly it was shaking its own battery apart.
so why hope? because hungary was the first weekend all year that looked like progress. the team turned up with a 16-part upgrade that is basically a B-spec car. alonso dragged it into Q2 and qualified 16th, his best grand prix qualifying of the season. on sunday stroll finished P13 and alonso P14, ahead of both haas cars and both williams. yes, i am celebrating P13. that’s where we are.
reason two came on the wednesday after the race. honda ran its upgraded engine in the car for the first time, at a filming day at the hungaroring. it comes through ADUO, the catch-up system that gives the manufacturers who are behind extra development, and it races at zandvoort on 23 august. newey says more new parts are coming there, at monza and in baku.
will that turn a car that was two seconds off a cadillac into a points car? i have no idea, and neither does anyone else until it runs in anger. but a new chassis and a new engine inside one month is at least a plan, which is more than the first half of the season looked like.
one more number. alonso turned 45 on 29 july, his contract runs out at the end of this season, and nothing has been announced for 2027. i’d love to tell him the good car is coming next year, but that’s what everyone said about this year.
prediction for zandvoort: both cars in Q2 and alonso in the points. i’ve been wrong about this team before. see you after the break.