Lance Stroll fears a very difficult weekend in Belgium, and Mike Krack acknowledges that Spa-Francorchamps represents a major challenge for Aston Martin.
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Aston Martin expects to experience one of the most difficult weekends of its season at Spa-Francorchamps. As Formula 1 prepares to hold the Belgian Grand Prix, the British team does not hide its concerns about a track particularly demanding for the AMR26.
Lance Stroll had already sounded the alarm after the British Grand Prix, believing that the Belgian event could represent the biggest challenge of the year for his team. An analysis now shared by Mike Krack, head of track operations at Aston Martin.
“Yes, I think we know the sensitivities of this track regarding the different car parameters, and I have to agree with Lance” Krack explained to the media.
“It’s not just the lap length that will penalize us, but also the characteristics of the circuit. We can therefore expect a difficult weekend.”
A track that exposes the weaknesses of the AMR26
With its 7 kilometers length, Spa-Francorchamps is the longest circuit on the calendar. Its long straights and many full-throttle sections make energy management particularly important with the new 2026 cars.
For Aston Martin, this issue is further accentuated by the current performance of the Honda engine powering the AMR26. The Silverstone-based team hopes, however, to quickly reverse the trend thanks to a significant development program.
Improvements concerning both the chassis and the power unit are expected as early as the Hungarian Grand Prix, the following week. But before that, Aston Martin will probably have to deal with one last particularly difficult event.
The team has scored only one point since the start of the season, obtained by Fernando Alonso in Monaco, and hopes that these new developments will finally reduce its gap to the rest of the field.
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Honda facing the challenge of energy management
The problem, however, does not concern Aston Martin alone. Spa represents a real energy management puzzle for all teams, with a difficult balance to find between recovery and power deployment.
Shintaro Orihara, Honda’s technical director on track, acknowledges that the Belgian track will require a specific strategy.
“This circuit is quite complicated compared to Silverstone. We have long straights and it is particularly tricky regarding the distribution of MGU-K deployment” he explained.
“We have prepared some data, but we still need to verify what will be the best strategy to cover all the long straights.”
The Japanese manufacturer notably highlights the necessary compromise in the use of available energy.
“If we deploy energy at the start of the straight, we lose a lot of speed at the end of the straight. We therefore have to think about where it is best to use it.”
At Spa, Aston Martin will therefore have to deal with a circuit that could highlight all its current weaknesses, before hoping for a fresh start thanks to the developments expected after the summer break.
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