Jak Crawford covered 200 kilometers in the AMR26 during a film day in Hungary—the new Honda engine was used for the first time with the approved updates
Aston Martin stayed on at the Hungaroring a little longer after last weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. On Tuesday, the Silverstone-based team took part in a test for tire manufacturer Pirelli alongside Alpine and Audi.
But while Franco Colapinto in the Alpine A526 and Gabriel Bortoleto in the Audi R26 completed another day of testing on Wednesday to develop the 2027 Pirelli tires, Aston Martin took a break from the previous day’s work and instead used its second film day of the season.
This session was eagerly anticipated, as the new Honda power unit—which utilized two development tokens from the ADUO system—was installed in the green car for the first time.
The fact that the test was intended more for analyzing the Honda RA626H engine than for pure filming is evident from the fact that the functional test was entrusted to Jak Crawford, the team’s third driver. Otherwise, the regular drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, would have been behind the wheel.
Working together with the Aston Martin team and drawing on data from the race weekend, the Japanese engineers were able to make important comparisons with the AMR26 from the Grand Prix, even though only demo tires are used during test days and a maximum of 200 kilometers may be driven.
The initial indications are reportedly positive: the disruptive vibrations that had hampered the start of the season appear to have been eliminated. Thanks to extensive work on the components approved by the FIA, a power increase of just under 30 PS is expected at Zandvoort.
While that isn’t enough to seriously challenge the currently best powertrains in the field—those from Mercedes and Red Bull Ford—it represents solid progress that should regularly bring Alonso and Stroll close to the points.
The new power unit had passed bench tests in Sakura, and it will be interesting to see what level of performance can be achieved at Zandvoort, where the complete new package will be used in a Grand Prix for the first time.
Earlier, at the Hungarian Grand Prix over the weekend, the B-version of the AMR26—featuring all the updates Adrian Newey introduced to both the chassis and the aerodynamics—made its debut.
The performance boost was immediately apparent: Alonso made it into Q2 for the first time in qualifying and finished 14th in the race, right behind his teammate Stroll. With the new engine, the team is expected to make further progress after the summer break.