Aston Martin dark web data uncovers 'real numbers' about Adrian Newey upgrades

Leading F1 insider Rob Smedley has put into context the impact of that massive Aston Martin upgrade package at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Team principal Adrian Newey and his squad endured a painful existence through the first half of the season, watching teams disappear literally into the distance as they continued to flounder after a disastrous start to 2026.

But Newey's decision to wait instead for one massive upgrade package paid off in Budapest as the team began the long climb back to relevance on the grid.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso was able to get into Q2, a major achievement based on previous performances, and some experts believe the upgrades (a massive 16 in total) improved lap times by two seconds.

Former Ferrari and Williams star Smedley used what he calls 'dark web data' to provide further context to Aston's improvement, and it is a fascinating download.

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton and the shock Red Bull move which leaves F1 with regrets

How much did Newey upgrades do for Aston Martin?

Smedley used a trace comparison to pit Alonso's performance in Hungary against Williams star Carlos Sainz. Williams of course run a Mercedes power unit as opposed to the much-maligned Honda engine which Aston Martin run with.

Speaking on the High Performance Racing podcast, he revealed: "You can see in the minimum corner speeds, Alonso is much quicker everywhere - in Turn 3 or 5 or whatever, he doesn't even have to lift. So he has much more downforce on the car. It's just a more stable and a better performing car.

"But you can see with the Mercedes engine, the difference between the two engines and probably the drag between the two cars as well, he gets killed on all the straights. All of the straights, Sainz is up to 10kph faster, which is pretty impressive."

Okay so we know that the Aston chassis appeared to be much stronger in Budapest - as expected thanks to all those upgrades. But what did it exactly mean in speed terms?

"Okay so let's try to distil in simple terms how much this package is worth," Smedley continued.

"What [the data] shows you is the delta of the Aston to the pole position lap. If you take the first races up to Spain [not including Spain] then that deficit is 4.1 percent. We use percent because the physical lap time is different from circuit to circuit. So it's 4.1 percent slower.

"From Spain onwards, the top teams, they bring new packages and it's much quicker and then it's much closer to 5 percent slower. But then in Budapest, they were back to being 3.9 percent. So they've made relative time up to everybody.

"This is really interesting because the first part of the season they're 4.1 percent off, now they're 3.9 percent off. You could say it's within the noise, it's the same, or you could say it's 0.2 percent faster, whatever. What it means is Aston have kept the same pace as all of the front runners, which is quite impressive."

Now all eyes are on Honda, and power unit upgrades

Now Newey has started to turn around Aston's chassis issues, all eyes turn to Honda as it prepares to bring the first power unit upgrade of the season for the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort (August 21-23). And it will be a significant moment says Smedley.

"Now what that doesn't include is the engine package, which is coming for Zandvoort, and Zandvoort is a real engine track - you need a very very strong engine there.

"So it will be interesting to see whether or not they can at least keep pace, because the engine deficit in Budapest - as you see from that trace with Sainz - was much less of a problem than it would be in Zandvoort.

"So Aston really need to Honda to step it up with this new engine package, with their tokens they've got to use."

Newey has already revealed that more chassis upgrades are coming in Monza [Italian Grand Prix] and Baku [Azerbaijan Grand Prix], while Honda can bring two engine upgrades during the remainder of 2026.

So in theory there is significant improvement still to be had, and Smedley believes there is one other major reason to be very optimistic if you are an Aston Martin fan.

"There's a lot to come and don't forget, what they've really been looking for is a stable platform. The correlation - so how much does the car give you on track compared to what you think it's going to do in simulation.

"Speaking with various people there, it's kinda done what they thought it should have done.

"They've now got a platform which is respectable to use Adrian's word, and now they've got to bat on from there."

F1 HEADLINES: Leclerc fires warning as fans go wild for Lewis Hamilton and Kim Kardashian

Written by

Graham Shaw - Consultant Editor

Digital sports leader with 30 years of senior level experience running global brands. Built sportinglife.com to be a behemoth in the UK as well as being in charge of the Planet Sport network of sites including planetf1.com, football365.com, teamtalk.com and planetrugby.com. Then grew goal.com to be the world's biggest soccer website in 18 languages and 37 territories. Was GM of Portals for Perform Group (now DAZN) with overall responsibility for sportingnews.com, spox.de and voetbalzone.nl.

View full biography