Here's something that'll wind you up a bit. Aston Martin have apparently done the numbers internally and reckon their Honda engine is costing them around 1.5 seconds per lap compared to Mercedes. That's a massive gap, and it puts into perspective just how far off the pace they really are right now. The team's been struggling this season, but Adrian Newey's fresh chassis finally showed some promise at the Hungarian Grand Prix, getting Fernando Alonso into Q2 for the first time in 2024.

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So what would that 1.5 second gain actually mean? Well, Alonso's qualifying time at Hungary was 1:19.808, which put him 2.352 seconds down on Lando Norris' benchmark. If you knock off that 1.5 second Honda deficit and give Fernando a Mercedes engine, he'd have clocked 1:18.308. That would've landed him seventh in Q2, sandwiched between Max Verstappen's Red Bull and Arvid Lindblad in the Racing Bulls. It would've even beaten Nico Hulkenberg's Audi time from the top 10 shoot-out. Pretty wild when you think about it.

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The irony here is absolutely brilliant. Aston Martin ditched Mercedes power at the end of last season to go exclusive with Honda, thinking it'd be the better move long-term. Now they're sitting here wishing they had that Mercedes engine back. The calculations suggest that Newey's finally nailed the chassis fundamentally, which is massive progress for the team after his initial claims that they were already top five in the midfield turned out to be wide of the mark.

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There's hope on the horizon though. Honda's bringing a fresh power unit upgrade to the Dutch Grand Prix after the summer break, and rumours reckon it could add around 50 horsepower. That would more than halve the gap to Mercedes if the numbers are accurate. It wouldn't close it entirely, but it'd definitely put Aston Martin back in the fight for points consistently. Whether it's enough to make them regular Q3 contenders is another question, but at least they're moving in the right direction now.

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