Karun Chandhok says Aston Martin staff look ‘depressed’ by tough start to 2026 F1 season

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F1 pundit Karun Chandhok has shared an update on the atmosphere at Aston Martin, highlighting that ‘everyone’ at the struggling Silverstone-based constructor is ‘deflated and depressed’.

It’s been a rough stretch for Aston Martin fans. Hopes were sky-high with Adrian Newey in charge heading into the season, but the team has fallen well short of expectations, unable to field a car capable of scoring points.

Their Honda power unit has been identified as the main problem within the AMR26 package. Early in the season, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll even faced concerns over potential nerve damage caused by severe vibrations from the engine.

After Honda’s home race in Suzuka, one of Aston Martin’s AMR26s stayed behind in Japan for further testing at Honda’s Sakura base. The focus was on addressing the vibration problem, but it came at the expense of putting resources into chassis development.

Karun Chandhok says ‘everyone’ at Aston Martin looks ‘depressed’

Speaking on The F1 Show, pundit Karun Chandhok mentioned the ‘deflated’ mood inside Aston Martin amid their ongoing struggles with the AMR26 this season.

The former Lotus driver started by pointing out the length of the FIA document that lists all the upgrades each team brings to a race weekend.

With almost every team introducing a host of changes for their 2026 cars in Miami, the document stretched over 24 pages. But Aston Martin’s page was completely empty.

“There were 11 individual upgrades [for Ferrari]. Every single team had various bits and pieces. We scrolled down, and the Aston page said nothing,” Chandhok told his co-hosts.

“There were no upgrades on the car, on the chassis. We know that they had the full car at Sakura in Japan after Suzuka to try to understand the vibration issue, but we didn’t really get a clear answer as to how much has been resolved.