Lance Stroll hints Aston Martin issues after summer break: 'It will be tougher'

Aston Martin

Lance Stroll hints Aston Martin issues after summer break: 'It will be tougher'

Lance Stroll is not too hopeful about the team's next few months

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Saturday 1 August 2026 13:55

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Aston Martin F1 driver Lance Stroll has said that he expects things to be 'more difficult' for Aston Martin after the summer break.

That's despite the fact that the team are bringing an upgraded Honda power unit to the Dutch Grand Prix, the first race after the summer break.

Aston Martin have had a disastrous start to 2026, only picking up one point from the opening 11 grand prix weekends as they have struggled with reliability and performance issues.

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At the recent Hungarian Grand Prix, the team brought 16 upgrades to their AMR26, upgrades which worked well, helping Stroll to a 13th-place finish and his two-time champion team-mate Fernando Alonso to 14th.

F1 design legend Adrian Newey has been working hard on their chassis ever since it became clear that they were not competitive at the start of the year, while Honda have been desperately trying to find answers to their power unit woes.

And those answers may just have been found, with a new, upgraded power unit being tested this week around the Hungaroring, before it is rolled out competitively for the Dutch GP in August.

But Stroll does not seem too optimistic, admitting that they are going to struggle at circuits such as Baku and Monza, both of which are coming up in September.

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Stroll's Aston Martin upgrades verdict

"At Zandvoort we'll see the progress we've made with the engine, and from there it will continue to depend somewhat on the circuit," Stroll said in quotes reported by Motorsport via SoyMotor. "I think that even if, with the engine upgrade, we were as fast as Mercedes, which is what I hope, it's probably not very likely.

"So Baku, Monza, those circuits where power is key will be more difficult. We have to try to take advantage of the circuits where it's not so much about the engine as it is about grip in the corners."

He continued about the 16 upgrades: "Very good. I mean, it's been the most promising improvement we've had in a very, very long time, maybe in the entire history of this team."

Newey has confirmed that more chassis upgrades will be on their way in both Baku and Monza, so that may well help to cheer Stroll and the rest of the team up.