All eyes on Aston Martin and Newey as FIA reveals 16-part AMR26 upgrade

Aston Martin is rolling out its first major upgrade package of the year at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with the FIA revealing the full extent of the changes ahead of Friday’s first practice.

Aston Martin has brought a significantly upgraded version of the AMR26 to Hungary, after the first iteration of the car proved to be the slowest on the grid.

FIA details Aston Martin AMR26 B-spec upgrade

Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust.

Not only was the car overweight and lacking in downforce, but there were also issues with the Honda power unit and overall reliability.

Rather than bring small performance gains every few races, the team, under design legend Adrian Newey’s leadership, focused on addressing the car’s fundamental weaknesses through sweeping aerodynamic and chassis changes introduced with the B-spec car.

“I think Adrian mentioned it already a while ago that the upgrade is a significant aerodynamic upgrade and a weight reduction. That is the key or the red line of it,” Aston Martin’s Mike Krack told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media in Budapest.

The FIA’s update document in Budapest set out the full extent of the changes.

More from the Hungarian Grand Prix on PlanetF1.com

First look: Aston Martin AMR26 upgrades break cover at Hungarian GP

Aston Martin AMR26 ‘rumour’ alerts Bottas as upgrades break cover

Aston Martin introduced 16 new parts.

The car’s floor and bodywork were changed, along with the sidepods, engine cover, diffuser, a thinner and longer nose, front wing, rear wing, cooling louvres and rear suspension.

The sidepods and engine cover have evolved to improve the feed to the rear of the car, with the front wing, endplate and nose altered to improve the front end of the car.

The team has changed all of the permitted surfaces of the floor, updated the floor leading edge vanes as well as the foot/board and the area in front of the rear tyre. This is intended to improve the car’s downforce, something Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have complained about.

Every one of the 16 parts is related to improving the overall performance of the AMR26.

It is by far the biggest upgrade package brought to the track this season.

Further up the grid, McLaren has a new floor and board, rear wing, rear corner and front corner. The latter, which involves a modified brake cooling exit, is to deal with the increased brake cooling demands of the Hungaroring.

Mercedes has also focused on cooling, changing the engine cover’s exit size to achieve better airflow through the sidepods. The Brackley squad also has a new rear wing and tail winglet.

Red Bull has made performance changes to the RB22, including to its Macarena rear wing‘s pylon profiles. The camber of the pylons has been increased to extract more load and maintain, even enhance, the flow stability. The diffuser’s geometry has also been revised, along with the rear wing.

Ferrari returned to the development war, billing it as ‘part of the standard development cycle’. The rear wing has been focused on increasing load in a robust way, with additional winglet cascade added.

Williams has a new floor body and rear wing, Racing Bulls has changed the rear wing and roll hoop, Haas and Audi both brought new rear wings to the circuit, and Cadillac changed the car’s brake cooling – an issue that has hampered the team this season.

Only Alpine did not bring anything new to the track.

Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.

You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!

Read Next: Aston Martin confirms ‘different direction’ as $1million question answered