Aston Martin races to finish Hungary upgrades with spare parts running critically short

Aston Martin is working at full capacity to deliver a significant aerodynamic upgrade package for the Hungarian Grand Prix, though chief trackside officer Mike Krack has warned that spare components will be scarce when the cars hit the track in Budapest.

Krack described the effort as a “big undertaking”, calling the question of whether both cars would be fully equipped the “one million dollar question”. While he expressed confidence that the team’s production staff at AMRTC would get both cars to the grid, he was candid about the limits of what they could achieve. “I don’t think we will have five spares of each, to be honest,” he said.

The Silverstone-based outfit has endured a wretched start to the 2026 season. The interface between the Honda power unit and the AMR26 chassis has been a persistent problem, with vibration issues and battery failures forcing the team to prioritise reliability fixes over performance development. As a result, Aston Martin held back any aerodynamic upgrades until the final race before the summer break — a decision that has left them roughly a second per lap adrift of Cadillac in qualifying.

Fernando Alonso’s single point in Monaco — earned only after Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez both received time penalties — stands as the team’s sole highlight of the campaign so far.

Despite the parts shortage, Krack said the upgrade programme was not contingent on any single component arriving in time. Contingency plans have been drawn up to allow the team to run in various configurations depending on what makes it through production. “You cannot make yourself dependent on one part missing and then you cannot do it,” he said. “There are plans in place. What if we don’t have that? Can we run this?”

Krack was also careful to temper expectations around the performance gain the new aero parts will bring. Aston Martin have spent much of the season isolated at the back of the field, and he acknowledged the gap to both the front-runners and the midfield remains substantial. “We are quite far away from the front, but also from the midfield,” he said, urging caution before the team’s first genuine opportunity to measure itself against its rivals.