The "biggest change" for Aston Martin is not its Hungary F1 qualifying breakthrough

Fernando Alonso says a maiden Q2 appearance for Aston Martin this season at the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix was not “the biggest change” brought by the new package.

Aston Martin introduced its ‘B-spec’ car this weekend at the Hungaroring, following a torrid opening half of the 2026 campaign.

While the new car has not vaulted Aston up the field, there has been a clear step from the brand, with Fernando Alonso making it into Q2 for the first time this season on Saturday in Hungary.

Though he could do no more than 16th and finish over a second from a Q3 place, he felt the result was “important for everyone”, even if it’s not the “biggest change” from the new car.

“I think it was important,” he told the media after Q2.

“It definitely was important for everyone in the team. It has been a tough period, for both factories, having the deficit we had in terms of performance in the first half of the year.

“And this package, obviously, didn’t change many positions. But it changed a lot the momentum of everyone in the factory.

“It’s not anymore that we are chasing something we don’t know.

“We know exactly what we are looking for and we know the targets for the next package, or for next year.

“So, that’s for me, the biggest change of this weekend.”

No “nasty surprises” from Aston’s B-spec car

Alonso added that it was important for Aston to prove not to have “a nasty surprise” from the updates compared to what the simulations suggested, even if its pace was as expected.

“I think when you bring nearly a new car, you always believe that it is important to have the correlation right and you deliver what you expected to deliver,” he said.

“Even if it’s what we expected, I think it was important to have it and not have a nasty surprise.”

Despite the improvements throughout the weekend, Alonso says the team would have changed the set-up of his car again had there been another session available before the race.

“Yeah, but we’re still not on top of the package,” he added.

“In qualifying we relearned something again on the balance of the car.

“So, if we had another session, I think we will change the set-up again.

“So, I think it’s still early days. And I think there is more potential to unlock in the car, but it’s normal when you have such a big package.

“And unfortunately we lost one car from free practice yesterday, so we’re still down on experience on these parts.”