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Aston Martin may not be experiencing the start to the Formula 1 season that it had in 2023, but the fans & racing community are being treated to an almost ‘golden’ period for the sport. This past Sunday continued the spectacle when Oscar Piastri in a McLaren became the 7th different winner of the season – something that hasn’t occurred since 2012. And this was supposed to be a season which was going to see Red Bull dominate and Max Verstappen stroll off with both World Championships. Fortunately, that isn’t happening. Here’s how the race weekend unfolded.

Coming to the Hungaroring, on the outskirts of Budapest, a tight, twisty & technical track, with a relentless cavalcade of corners, and the circuit where Fernando Alonso achieved his first Formula 1 race victory. The team were in high hopes, especially after a decent points finish at Silverstone 2 weeks earlier, where the drivers finished 7th (Stroll) & 8th (Alonso) and they’d brought some updates, including an updated floor, for the AMR24s, which was expected to deliver a ‘more consistent’ car. It was a sweltering start to the race weekend as the drivers and cars baked in 38ºC heat when the first practice session (FP1) got underway. Quite soon into the session, Stroll, lying 18th fastest, reported that his Aston Martin was “quite shocking to drive”, whereas Alonso, in 17th, was having balance issues - and his car was running all the updates! When asked about the balance so as to help Stroll out, his response was "yeah, good luck". Towards the end of the session, Stroll’s car was fitted with hard tyres and he managed to post a time that was 9th fastest, recording the fastest time in Sector One. Alonso’s car meanwhile was fitted with soft tyres and he posted only the 13th fastest time. After having the opportunity to cool down & debrief, the drivers & cars came out again later in the afternoon for the second practice session (FP2). Stroll’s car was now fitted with the same updates as Alonso’s. However, the session came to an abrupt halt after quarter of an hour, when it was red flagged, after Leclerc in a Ferrari took too much kerb heading into a turn & spun off the track into the barriers. Less than half an hour remained when the session restarted and out came the AMR24s on the soft (faster) tyres, which were less durable, especially in the heat, and the tyre degradation was noted to be quite high and extreme. Alonso ended up the session 10th fastest, Stroll 17th. It was noticeably cooler when the cars & drivers returned to action the following day for the FP3 session which provided a final opportunity to prepare ahead of the all-important Qualifying later. Aston Martin chose to run a different tyre strategy to the rest of the pack, with both opting to save the soft compound tyres for later or the race and just used the mediums, which might explain why they only went 14th (Alonso) & 15th (Stroll) fastest.

Heavy showers had preceded the start of Qualifying but as it had been so hot the track was drying quickly, but inconsistently, when the lights went green. Every driver was keen to get an early lap on the board, given the lingering threat of rain. The Aston Martins seemed to time their first runs very well and Alonso went 5th & Stroll 9th on a drying track and just before the rain got heavier. It was then that the Williams driver, Sargent, skidded off track & hit a barrier. Only yellow flags were deployed for this incident though and Qualifying continued uninterrupted. Worryingly though, Stroll had tumbled down the order into the bottom 5 elimination zone. Then, with just under 7 minutes remaining, Perez crashed into a barrier and this time the red flags were deployed. When the session restarted Alonso looked safe in 5th spot, but Stroll had to go out again & try to improve his time, which he did, going 4th. By the end of the session other drivers had also improved their times, knocking Stroll down to 7th & Alonso to 12th, but at least they were through to the next round. Alonso & Stroll headed out in Q2 with 10 minutes to go and Stroll went 3rd but was beaten down to 4th when Alonso went 3rd. On their final runs Stroll went back up to 4th and Alonso set a personal best in the 1st sector but didn’t do so well in the 2nd. Nevertheless, they both got through to the final round, Stroll 6th, Alonso 7th. In Q3, on their first runs, Alonso posted the 6th fastest time & Stroll was 8th – then came some rain and Tsunoda crashed his RB (2nd Red Bull) with just over 2 minutes left of session, necessitating red flags and the services of the Aston Martin DBX 707 medical car again (it had certainly been busy that day!). Vexingly, it upset the fast lap that Alonso was putting in, even though he was well past the incident when the red flags & lights were deployed, meaning the lap had to be abandoned. Alonso didn’t go out again when the session restarted, Stroll did, but didn’t improve his time, so it stayed Alonso in 7th, Stroll in 8th, positions that both drivers were pleased with and which potentially set them up for a strong race the following day. For the record, McLaren’s Lando Norris secured pole position followed by his team-mate, Oscar Piastri.

As the cars all lined up for the start of the 70 lap race, all basking in sunshine, it was evident that the AMs were only 2 of 4 cars starting on soft tyres. Were Aston Martin hoping to get the jump from the start on the other cars on harder compound tyres or gambling on a safety car incident? When they all launched off from the start, the front runners, Norris, Piastri & Verstappen went into the 1st corner 3 abreast, with Piastri winning out, Verstappen ending up off track and gaining an advantage (which he later had to give back) and Norris temporarily pushed down to 3rd. For the Astons however, the soft tyre seemed to work for Alonso, when he moved up a place to 6th, passing Sainz, who had been 4th on the starting grid. Stroll remained in 8th. By lap 3, Sainz, in the Ferrari & with the benefit of DRS, retook the place from Alonso. By lap 6, Albon was within DRS range to Stroll and a queue of cars was starting to form up behind his Aston Martin. Given the nature of the track though, there wasn’t much room for overtaking. With the gamble not paying off and the high degradation with the soft tyres, Alonso had to come into the pits at the end of lap 7 for fresh tyres & he came out 15th. As other drivers started to come in for their tyre changes, by lap 10 Stroll was in 7th place and Alonso 14th. Eventually, Stroll came in on lap 15 but had a poor, 4.1 seconds stop & came out 16th. On the fresher tyres, Stroll passed Magnussen on the next lap, then Bottas up ahead came into the pits, which moved the AMs up to 12th & 14th and a couple of laps after that, Stroll and Albon were trading positions, with Stroll winning out & getting himself up to 13th. Alonso meanwhile had also advanced and got to within DRS range of Hulkenberg by lap 21. However, it was now the hugely experienced veteran who couldn’t make the overtake, despite a number of attempts. Eventually, on lap 27 Alonso got the pass done, when Hulkenberg locked up. Stroll repeated the feat on Hulkenberg on the next lap. Alonso then moved rapidly to get within range of Gasly, but rather than put up a fight Gasly came into the pits for his 1st tyre change, as did Perez, further ahead. Both Aston Martins were now up into the points - 9th Alonso & 10th Stroll. By the halfway stage of the race, Tsunoda & Russell had to make their pit stops and the AMs were up to 7th & 8th. Shortly after though, Perez in the Red Bull & on fresher tyres, passed Stroll and was just hunting down Alonso when on lap 38 Alonso was called into the pits again for his 2nd pit stop – he came out 13th. Now Alonso had the fresher tyres & was able to gain a place from Riccardo & then on lap 42 was able to get within DRS range & overtake Bottas for 11th. Tsunoda was now 10 seconds ahead of Alonso & Stroll, in 8th, was a similar distance behind Russell. On lap 46 it was time to bring Stroll into the pits for his 2nd stop & he came out 14th, allowing Alonso to move up to 10th and into the points again. With the benefit of his fresh tyres Stroll quickly got up to and passed Albon & then passed Hulkenberg with 20 laps left to go and hauled himself to within 2.6 seconds of Riccardo. The tyres were still working for him and once he got within DRS range Stroll was able to pass Riccardo on lap 56. Up ahead, Alonso, who had reduced the gap to Tsunoda to 5.5 seconds, had managed to claw himself closer to just 1.7 seconds behind – would he get & pass him before the chequered flag? It was not to be. With 10 laps to go & Alonso in 10th place & Stroll just behind, it was obvious that Alonso’s tyres were starting to degrade as the gap to Tsunoda started to increase again. With 5 laps to go & Alonso continuing to lose distance, he let Stroll through to see if he could possibly get ahead of the Japanese driver. Having pitted 8 laps later than Alonso, Stroll’s tyres demonstrated that they were in better condition and he got to within a second of Tsunoda on the last lap but wasn’t able to pass him. The final result was that after starting 7th & 8th Aston Martin picked up just 1 point – for the 10th place for Stroll. There was a new first time winner of the Grand Prix though - well done Oscar and there had been 5 changes of leadership, so never a dull moment.

After the race, Alonso said, “I missed out on the points today as we didn't quite optimise our race. We pitted quite early and from that point on we had quite a long race ahead managing the tyres”. Lance Stroll’s comments were, "It was a difficult race for us. I don't think we optimised the strategy and we were not competitive enough. We struggled with tyre degradation, too. We've got a lot of work to do as a team ahead of the next round. Spa is a very different track, so hopefully that suits our car more."

I hope so too, as that is where I will be this Friday, in the Paddock, the Aston Martin garage & enjoying their hospitality for 3 days.

Edward Jensen – if you’d like to join the WhatsApp group just follow this link:https://chat.whatsapp.com/BnZvzZwTnKzI67DFs1rz4L