Why there's 'light at the end of the tunnel' for Aston Martin

Aston Martin endured a difficult race in Austria, as Lance Stroll retired with reliability issues while Fernando Alonso trailed the field home. But Chief Trackside Officer Mike Krack believes there is “light at the end of the tunnel” for the team as they look forward to their first real upgrades.

The team were one of just two, Williams being the other, not to run any upgrades in Austria – with Aston Martin yet to introduce any large package of parts to their 2026 car.

That was partly due to a focus on reliability in the early part of the season, as the team worked closely with Honda to address some fundamental issues with the power unit.

But as the weeks have progressed and both Alonso and Stroll have been able to complete more laps, it has been easier to settle on a direction for their upgrade package.

“We are 80% or 90% or, you know, we're not so far away,” explained Krack. “Let's say there is light at the end of the tunnel, so we will get through the next two events with the situation we had already, but I think all in all, the way we have managed this is not bad.

“We knew that we had to take this decision, we went through it. We said like this many races already, after the race and you asked me, are you disappointed? And of course I am disappointed, but it's a decision we took, and we tried to learn as much as we could.

“And I think we, again [Sunday], we have learned a lot, it could be easy to just say we do five laps and we stop, but we are racers and I always say that if we go through difficult times, then we will be strong when we go to easier times.”

Aston Martin are expected to bring a big package of upgrades around the summer break, and that day cannot come soon enough for Alonso and Stroll – the Spaniard finished three laps down in Austria, while Stroll once again did not see the chequered flag.

It was Adrian Newey’s decision to focus on one big batch of upgrades, rather than bolting smaller parts on the car week in, week out.

With their pre-season testing and the first few Grands Prix limited by reliability problems, Aston Martin have been playing catch up this year in terms of track time. But now they are finally getting to a place where their drivers are more often than not able to complete plenty of laps across a weekend, to learn more about the AMR26.

“We are in a fortunate situation that both drivers provide very similar feedback,” Krack added.

“It's not like one says A and one says B or one says X and one says Y. So, the feedback of both drivers is very, very similar in terms of where we need to improve the car, where we need to improve our procedures, where we need to improve the operations.

“I do not want to talk everything too positively, but at the end of the day, I think you need to take these positives. So, I think all in all, we have two drivers that are pulling on the same side of the rope, together with the team and that is good, because it allows us to progress quicker.”

Aston Martin sit 10th in the Teams’ Championship, ahead of Cadillac courtesy of Alonso’s P10 result in Monaco.