For the home Grand Prix of its engine supplier Honda, Aston Martin made little progress at Suzuka, but an AMR26 saw the checkered flag for the first time this season: a meager satisfaction.
Read more No footage of the 130R corner: Antonelli’s onboard lap becomes suspicious
Mike Krack, head of trackside operations at Aston Martin F1, insisted that seeing only one car at the finish of the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix was nothing to be very proud of.
After four retirements in the first two races in Australia and China, linked to persistent reliability issues with the Honda engine, the team already knew that a trouble-free weekend would be difficult to achieve.
Alonso dead (?) last
At Suzuka, Lance Stroll retired again, while Fernando Alonso finished 19th, giving the team its first finish of the season. Asked about this result, Krack was quick to temper any idea of satisfaction.
“The mood in the team is not one of celebration, that’s clear,” acknowledged the Luxembourgish engineer. “In Melbourne, we were talking about doing six laps. In Shanghai, we managed to string sessions together but with a lot of work in between. Here, that was no longer the case. The cars could be prepared normally, and our objective – a modest one – was to finish the race with both cars. We did it with one. It’s a small step among many others.”
Progress… but an abnormal situation
Krack admits that finishing a race remains a positive signal after complicated weeks, while highlighting the very abnormal nature of the situation: “As a team, we cannot destroy ourselves. We are in a difficult situation and we must take the positives from it. We managed to finish a race, which in F1 should be the norm. It shouldn’t be something to celebrate. But it’s our current reality.”
Read more Verstappen ready to quit it all? Red Bull calms things down after his statements
Beyond reliability, Aston Martin faces a significant performance deficit. In Japan, both cars were even beaten in qualifying by Cadillac, although Alonso finished ahead of Valtteri Bottas in the race.
Krack does not hide the scale of the challenge: “Once the reliability issues are resolved, everyone focuses on performance. And there, we have major progress to make, not small adjustments. There is a mountain to climb.”
He points in particular to several structural weaknesses of the AMR26: a deficit in high-speed corners, weight above the regulatory limit, and an overall lack of aerodynamic and engine performance.
Shared responsibility with Honda
Finally, Krack insists that responsibility is shared between the chassis and the engine: “We have to be honest: we are also responsible for the performance deficit. Honda doesn’t want to be in this situation either, so they are pushing as much as possible. Des two sides, there is a lot of work.”
With five weeks without a race ahead, the stakes are high for Aston Martin: transforming these first “small steps” into real progress, or risk seeing its 2026 season slip away as early as spring.
Read more Unusual F1 heist: 12 tons of chocolates disappear during transport