Adrian Newey used his old Red Bull trick to upgrade Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin at Hungarian GP

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Adrian Newey has turned to a concept that he once used at Red Bull by using the rear suspension as an aerodynamic element with Aston Martin’s upgrades for the AMR26.

Aston Martin have endured a torrid time at the start of F1’s 2026 regulations, on which they built so much hope ahead of the season. So, design guru Newey and his team in Silverstone have completely overhauled the AMR26 with a whopping 16 upgrades at the Hungarian GP.

Newey elected against throwing intermittent updates at the AMR26 to try to give Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll a faster car, and instead favoured designing a full B-spec package. A new Honda engine is also coming for Aston Martin at the Dutch GP after the summer break.

Is Fernando Alonso living in la la land, or do you still think Adrian Newey can lead Aston Martin to the very top?

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Adrian Newey has turned Aston Martin’s rear suspension into an aerodynamic aid

Only the front suspension on the Aston Martin AMR26 remains unchanged from the car that Alonso and Stroll had been labouring at the very back of the pack in. More time is needed to refine a set-up for the new package, but Newey refuses to go down without a fight this year.

READ MORE: Martin Brundle’s verdict after seeing Aston Martin’s upgrades from trackside

According to the Spanish edition of Motorsport.com, Newey remains ‘convinced’ in his bold design choices with the AMR26 and that Aston Martin will improve their results. One of the areas where Newey saw the most scope to improve is his ‘bold’ new rear suspension set-up.

Aston Martin have lifted their rear suspension arms by 30mm at the attachment point to the central rear wing pillar, so that the arms are now above the exhaust. The two arms also now feature a connecting element similar to the set-ups that Newey implemented with Red Bull.

Newey is convinced that Aston Martin’s new rear suspension design improves the AMR26’s rear aero by modifying the central area of the carbon fibre covers to have effectively a mini wing. The element directs the rear airflow upwards towards the mainplane of the rear wing.

Now, Aston Martin still have some work to do on their AMR26 after Stroll’s rear suspension broke during FP1 at the Hungarian GP on Friday. The issue caught Aston Martin by surprise, as the part that broke was not related to the upgrades that Newey implemented this week.

Along with Newey’s updated rear suspension, Aston Martin’s upgrades at the Hungarian GP included a new front wing, nose, floor, diffuser, sidepods, cooling vents and rear wing. Their upgrades even extended to underneath the AMR26’s skin, with a new chassis and gearbox introduced at the Hungaroring with the sole intention of further reducing the car’s weight.

Aston Martin will have the summer break to comb through all of the data that Alonso and Stroll produced with their updates at the Hungarian GP. The next challenge will then await at Zandvoort, when Aston Martin receive Honda’s first upgraded engine of the 2026 season.