Fernando Alonso says he is "optimistic" about Aston Martin's first major upgrade of the season, being introduced at this weekend's Hungarian Grand Prix, though he has urged caution about expecting an immediate step forward. The revised car features a new, lighter chassis and significant aerodynamic changes, and matters because Aston Martin have fallen progressively further behind rivals after opting to bank all their development into one package rather than drip-feeding smaller updates, a strategy chosen for budget efficiency under the sport's spending cap.

The team has struggled badly at recent power-heavy circuits such as Silverstone and Spa due to a lack of performance from their Honda engine, and even at the more corner-dependent Spanish Grand Prix they were four seconds off pole and over three seconds behind midfield rivals Racing Bulls and Audi. Alonso, who turns 45 on 29 July and is out of contract at the end of the season, declined to predict where the upgrade might place the team this weekend, noting the gap to the midfield has varied wildly across recent races. The Honda engine itself remains unchanged for now, with a development unit due at the Dutch Grand Prix after the summer break, while technical chief Adrian Newey said the team deliberately paused development early in the year to properly prepare this two-stage upgrade, continuing at Zandvoort.