Aston Martin is set for a filming day next Wednesday at the Hungaroring, where the updated Honda power unit will also be fitted to the AMR26, GPblog has learned.
The Silverstone-based team will take part in a Pirelli tyre test after the Hungarian Grand Prix as well, together with Alpine and Audi.
Earlier this season at the British Grand Prix, Honda’s Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer, Shintaro Orihara, explained that they are planning to first use at a Grand Prix weekend in Zandvoort.
He then told this website, among others: “I kept saying summer, but that may be a boring answer. So I would say our target is the Netherlands. So we are working hard to complete our job list to achieve bringing new power into the Netherlands. That is our target.
“Purely we focus on internal. Our focus point is to improve engine performance, so we are working on combustion chamber shape and also we modify pre-chamber. And also, we will change combustion chamber shape to improve our combustion performance. Also, we are working to reduce friction by modifying the lubrication system.
“That is what we are working on. And also, of course, to improve reliability, because if we increase performance, we need to increase reliability. So still, we have a quite big list to complete, but we are working hard to achieve the goal by the Netherlands.”
Photo: Race Pictures
Alonso happy with Aston Martin’s progress
Aston Martin introduced 16 updates for the Hungarian Grand Prix. After reaching Q2 for the first time this season, Fernando Alonso expressed satisfaction with the team’s progress.
“And this package obviously didn’t change many positions but it changed a lot the momentum of everyone in the factory.
“It’s not anymore that we are chasing something that we don’t know, we know exactly what we are looking for, and we know exactly the targets for the next package or the targets for next year. So that’s I think for me the biggest change of this weekend,” the Spaniard concluded.
