Despite bringing 16 upgrades to the AMR26 chassis at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Aston Martin found themselves battling a familiar and frustrating power unit problem.
The vibration issues, which caused significant headaches during the opening race weekends of 2026, resurfaced visibly during Friday practice at the Hungaroring.
Adrian Newey, serving as both team principal and managing technical partner at Aston Martin, has been working tirelessly to overhaul the struggling AMR26 since the car’s early-season shortcomings became apparent.
The team changed almost every component on their chassis heading into the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, hoping to close the gap to the midfield.
However, while the chassis appeared to show some improvement, attention quickly shifted back to the Honda power unit, which continued to struggle with reliability and power output.
Oscillations were clearly visible on the onboard cameras of both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll during FP1, raising immediate concerns among the Aston Martin camp.
Newey addressed the issue directly during the team principals’ press conference, pointing responsibility firmly towards the power unit supplier.
“The oscillations, yes, that’s really a question for Honda,” Newey said. “They can see it on the data and they are working on the solution.”
Alonso still managed to place his car in P13 during FP1, which represented a modest improvement on Aston Martin’s recent form despite the ongoing mechanical complaints.
FP2 brought further drama when Stroll did not participate following a suspected rear suspension failure, leaving Alonso as the sole Aston Martin representative in the afternoon session.
The 44-year-old Spaniard reported over team radio that the situation had actually deteriorated rather than improved between the two sessions, with his engineer suggesting the vibrations remained the same level.
His engineer stated: “So for us the vibrations are the same,” to which Alonso bluntly replied: “No it’s worse.”
Honda’s upgrade to address these recurring power unit concerns is not expected to arrive until after the summer break, leaving the team managing the issue in the short term.
Alonso did offer a degree of reassurance when speaking after practice, confirming that engineers had managed to make some progress within Friday itself.
He said: “I noticed vibrations especially in FP1 and they were more or less resolved in FP2,” suggesting the worst of the issue had been contained for now.