Aston Martin upgrades lift Alonso, but Monza looms
NXTbets Pro | Published On: August 28, 2026
Alonso earns points
Fernando Alonso turned Aston Martin’s latest upgrades into the team’s best finish of the season at the Dutch Grand Prix, climbing from 18th on the grid to ninth and bringing home two points. The result showed how much ground the team has made up since it introduced major chassis upgrades at the Hungarian Grand Prix and ran the B-spec AMR26 again in the Netherlands. Aston Martin has found more speed in race trim than over one lap, and Alonso’s run at Zandvoort matched that pattern. He went with a one-stop strategy after an early red flag, and the car stayed strong enough for him to work forward through the field. After the race, Alonso said Aston Martin had taken another step forward. He pointed to the chassis side and to setup optimization as the biggest sources of progress. That fit the weekend he just had. The car looked more settled when the laps stacked up, and the points finish gave Aston Martin a clear return on the upgrade work it brought to the track.
Aston Martin upgrades
Mike Krack said the Dutch Grand Prix result was helped by the circuit itself, since Zandvoort’s short straights and favorable layout played to the strengths of Aston Martin’s updated chassis. He said the team has been stronger in races since Budapest, where it introduced the major chassis changes, and he also said the car has shown progress in cornering performance. That is the clearest sign of where the gains have come from. The revised package has given Aston Martin more grip and better behavior through the turns, which helps the drivers carry speed when the track rewards that kind of balance. Krack also made the limits of the package plain. He said the Honda power unit is still significantly down on power, and that weakness continues to shape how the car performs across a weekend. Alonso felt some of that in the form of downshift problems and concerns with engine braking. Those issues can affect confidence and control on corner entry, especially when a driver is trying to make the most of a car that has improved in one area but still needs help in another. Aston Martin’s recent form has made one point clear, the chassis work is paying off, but the full package still has a long way to go before it matches the front-runners.
Monza, Baku loom
Krack said the next few races will be much tougher, and Monza and Baku are the main reasons why. Both circuits have longer straights, and that is where Aston Martin’s current package is likely to be exposed. The team has just come through a race that suited its strengths, with cornering performance and race-day balance doing enough to turn a difficult starting position into a points finish. The next events ask for more straight-line speed, which puts more pressure on the power unit and leaves less room for the chassis gains to hide any weakness. That is why the Dutch Grand Prix mattered beyond the final result. It gave Aston Martin a better read on how the B-spec AMR26 behaves in race conditions and confirmed that the upgrade path has improved the car’s Sunday pace. It also showed that the team still needs time. Krack said Aston Martin needs several races to learn how to optimize the new chassis and engine package, and that is the challenge ahead. The car has moved forward in cornering and in race trim. The test now is whether that progress can travel to tracks that demand more from the engine and punish any gap in top-end speed.
