Fernando Alonso believes that Aston Martin’s major upgrade package made it feel like “a different Qualifying” that allowed him to “fight a little bit more” in Hungary, with the Spaniard progressing to Q2 for the first time in 2026.
Instead of bringing small updates across a number of weekends to tackle their lack of performance, Aston Martin elected to wait until the Hungarian Grand Prix and introduce an overhaul of the car, which included an impressive 16 updates.
Changes were made to components such as the front wing, floor, diffuser and rear suspension as part of their plan to move up the pecking order, with Honda also set to bring engine upgrades to the Dutch Grand Prix.
Alonso seemed to embrace what was essentially their B-spec car from the outset, showing early promise throughout Free Practice before he beat six drivers to a spot in Q2 and secured P16 on the grid.
“It was a different weekend, different Qualifying,” he said. “We felt that we could fight a little bit more and we could influence the final result of Qualifying if we made a perfect lap or a perfect set-up.
“That adrenaline when you close the visor and you go into the lap, it was missed in the last few events – we were on the last row of the grid, whatever we were doing on the car. It was nice to go back to that feeling, and hopefully more to come in the next few races.”
The Spaniard has already ticked off scoring Aston Martin’s first point of the season after he was promoted to P10 in Monaco, but his recent Qualifying achievement is the clearest sign yet of their development.
While it’s still far from the success that the two-time World Champion has enjoyed in his career, it marks an important step forward, especially as Alonso’s future at the team has been a topic of speculation this season.
Asked whether he now has more to look forward to during the race at the Hungaroring, he answered: “Difficult, because I think the points are a little bit out of reach, still far away.
“But I think there is still more potential to unlock in the car – it’s going to be the first time we do more than six or seven laps on this package, so it’s going to be a good test also for the reliability and other stuff on the car, so I’m looking forward [to it].”
