Aston Martin unsurprisingly made another blunder during the recent Belgian GP. In the subpar AMR26, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll qualified dead last, while the team also faced a significant deficit during the race. Stroll had to retire due to a gearbox problem, while Alonso finished far behind in last place. Some statistics painfully highlight Aston Martin’s lag.
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Already on Friday, Aston Martin’s performance – or lack thereof – was scrutinized. A technical analysis of Lance Stroll’s laps during FP1 revealed that he lost a lot of speed on the Kemmel straight due to superclipping, a phenomenon where the combustion engine’s power is used to recharge the battery. This reportedly cost him about 58 km/h; by the time he reached the braking zone at Les Combes, his top speed was only 249.7 km/h. This is not only slower than Formula 2 and Formula 3 cars but even slower than a GT3 car.
Slower than Ayrton Senna
Free practice sessions are not always representative, of course, but the lack of pace at Aston Martin was painfully clear during qualifying as well. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll set by far the slowest laps, with times of 1:50.002 and 1:50.177 respectively. Kimi Antonelli ultimately took pole position with a time of 1:44.361. That’s a difference of over six seconds.
Not only was Antonelli significantly faster than the British team. The legendary Ayrton Senna already took pole position at Spa-Francorchamps in 1991 with a lap time of 1:47.811. More than two seconds faster than the current Aston Martin cars. An interesting detail: the Brazilian drove at the time in a McLaren MP4/6, powered by an exceptionally powerful Honda engine. Aston Martin will also have a Honda-made power unit in 2026.
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