Honda confirms major Aston Martin upgrades for Hungarian GP after Spa nightmare. Aston Martin pins hopes on major Hungary upgrades after disastrous Belgian GP.

A brief statement after a disastrous Belgian Grand Prix

Honda summed up an embarrassing Belgian Grand Prix weekend in a statement consisting of only five lines. Lance Stroll was forced to retire at Spa-Francorchamps, while Fernando Alonso completed the race two laps behind the leaders, bringing another deeply disappointing weekend for the Aston Martin-Honda partnership to an end.

The Japanese manufacturer effectively turned its attention immediately towards next weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix, where the long-awaited “AMR26 2.0” is expected to make its debut. Aston Martin is preparing to introduce a substantial collection of upgrades and technical developments which, according to the hopes of the team’s senior management and Honda, should at least allow it to move closer to Cadillac.

Even the American team, despite currently being clearly the second-slowest force on the Formula 1 grid, appears to be competing in a different championship compared with Aston Martin’s green cars.

Aston Martin and Honda wait for the Budapest upgrades

“The Belgian Grand Prix marks the final weekend before the cars receive upgrades over the next two races,” said Shintaro Orihara, Honda’s trackside general manager and chief engineer. “We leave this race once again able only to learn from the situation and move forward together with Aston Martin.”

Those carefully chosen words are not enough to conceal the embarrassment surrounding what has so far been one of the worst Formula 1 seasons experienced by a modern-era team. As a result, expectations are now rising dramatically ahead of the Budapest weekend.

Should Aston Martin’s current performance deficit and reliability problems remain unchanged even after the introduction of Adrian Newey’s upgrades, it would become difficult to describe Lawrence Stroll’s project as anything other than a historic disaster.