Aston Martin facing 'worst race of the year' ahead of much-anticipated F1 upgrade
Lance Stroll is braced for a tough weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix
Lance Stroll conceded that Spa-Francorchamps will be the "worst circuit" for Aston Martin, with the track set to highlight the ARM26's shortcomings before a major upgrade arrives at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Aston Martin has endured a tough Formula 1 season, and has slumped to around a second off the pace of next-best team Cadillac across a single lap in qualifying.
This marker was hit in both Austria and Silverstone, but with the Belgian Grand Prix venue the longest on the 2026 calendar, it is likely that this margin will grow yet again.
"We know that Spa’s going to be really difficult and probably the worst circuit of the year for us," Stroll told media, including Crash.net.
"It should be really difficult for us there, and, hopefully, Budapest is a big uplift in performance."
Stroll optimism for Budapest comes due to the planned introduction of Aston Martin's first upgrade of the season, with the team electing to chase one significant package rather than add parts gradually across the first half of the campaign.
While supportive of the team's decision, this approach has nonetheless left both Stroll and team-mate Fernando Alonso frustrated, with the pair arriving at events knowing that it would take a bizarre scenario to lift them from the foot of the field.
"We just have to be patient for the upgrades when they come," Stroll added. "Hopefully, it brings a lot of performance."
Aston Martin team principal and legendary F1 designer Adrian Newey commented recently, "We've taken this difficult spell as an opportunity to overhaul how we work.
"On the chassis side, we're quite a long way overweight. Some of that comes from integrating the power unit and dealing with vibration issues we've had to work through with Honda, but we also didn't do as good a job as we should have on our side at saving weight.
"When you design in a rush, weight is the first thing that suffers because you don't have the time to thoroughly optimise everything."
Sam joined Crash.net in February 2026 with extensive experience in motorsport media, having covered numerous championships around the world.
