Aston Martin Downplays Celebration After First F1 2026 Race Finish

The Silverstone-based squad has faced a challenging start to 2026, with issues extending into the first three race weekends.

Continuing problems with the Honda power unit and conjoining anomalies have prevented both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll from completing a full race.

In Suzuka, Alonso, who had reason to celebrate with the birth of his first child, completed all 53 laps of the race, despite the vibrations that caused numbness to both him and Stroll.

While there might be some pride felt for Honda, as its PU reached its first full distance at its home Grand Prix, for Krack, the achievement was acknowledged, given the progress it marks, but he stated the team felt little more than that.

“The mood in the team is not celebration, that is clear,” he told media including Motorsport Week.

“But when you look back in Melbourne, we discussed doing six laps. In Shanghai we managed to do the sessions, but in-between sessions we had a lot of work to be able to do all the sessions. This was not the case here.”

“So the cars could be prepared normally between the sessions, and our objective, it is a modest objective, clearly, was to finish a race with both cars. We managed with one.”

“So it’s one small step on the list with many, many, many small steps to be done.”

Aston Martin has endured a tough start to the campaign.

Krack did not totally shut down the idea of feeling pleased, as he stated that everyone on the Aston and Honda sides of the operation has “persisted” in their work to achieve Alonso’s race-finish, recognising that, these days, finishing races “should be the norm.”

“As a team you cannot destroy yourself,” he said.

“We are in a difficult situation, and you need to take the positives from the last three months. We went to Barcelona at the end of January, and since then, we have not done many laps.”

“We have now managed to finish races, which in F1 it should be the norm. It should not be something that you have to celebrate.”

“But we have to acknowledge that that is the situation we are in, and then we have to accept it and work our ourselves out of it.”

“I think credit to everyone trackside, Sakura and also in Silverstone, how we persisted in getting these initial steps done.”

Aston Martin can certainly feel a tinge of happiness in finishing a race, in what is the engine’s third race, given that it arrived in Barcelona with ‘shakedown week’ almost over.

It is a stepping stone for the team to, no pun intended, crack on with the hard work over the month-long break before the Miami Grand Prix on May 3.