Aston Martin raised its baseline with Hungarian GP upgrades - Alonso

Fernando Alonso believes Aston Martin’s B-spec car delivered what was expected in last weekend's Hungarian Formula 1 Grand Prix, and gives the team a new baseline to work with moving forward.

Aston Martin changed its development plan at the start of the season after problems with its launch car, and instead of regular upgrades it introduced a significant aerodynamic revision and new chassis in Hungary. After reaching Q2 and then both cars finishing within 14 seconds of the points on Sunday, Alonso said the progress is clear.

“It was a good step forward, both in qualifying and the race,” Alonso said. “So, a new baseline to work with for the second part of the year.

“As expected, more or less, the correlation is good, and the performance gains are there that we expected. And it's obviously early days with this new car. It's a completely new car, new concept. So, more to come maybe on the setup, optimization and things like that.

“So, the next race is also with the engine upgrade. It will be an interesting check in Zandvoort, where we are and what we can fight for.”

After joking that Honda is under pressure to deliver its own significant step forward with its updated power unit in the Netherlands, Alonso said the collaboration has been growing stronger since the start of the year.

“We are one team," he said. "We work together. We know our weakness and we try to help each other. I think Honda was trying to help some of the weaknesses of the car at the beginning of the year. Now, with the chassis, we try to help Honda as much as we can.

“Also, the consistency from lap to lap and deployment, I think [there has been] a lot of help from Aston Martin as well in that regard, on that software department. So, it’s a long way to go. We understand that, we are aware of that, but this, hopefully, is the first step. And both factories are gaining confidence and trust in what they do. So, that probably will be more important than anything else for the next few months.”