Aston Martin finishes both cars in Miami

Aston Martin’s Miami weekend mattered for a very unglamorous reason. Both cars simply made it to the end. After the first stretch of 2026 turned into a reliability mess, that alone counted as progress — Fernando Alonso finished 15th and Lance Stroll 17th on May 3, and the team called it their first proper step forward of the season. But the catch is obvious: finishing is not the same thing as competing. ### Why was just finishing such a big deal? Because Aston Martin’s opening races were a grind. The new Honda-powered AMR26 has been hit by severe vibration and reliability problems, and before Miami the team had piled up four retirements across Australia, China, and Japan. Aston Martin had only once even been classified at the finish before this weekend. (formula1.com) ### What changed in Miami? The team used the five-week gap before Miami to chase fixes instead of headline upgrades. Honda worked on countermeasures to reduce engine vibration, and Aston Martin focused on the failures that had stopped it from completing race distances. Miami still started badly — a power issue delayed both cars in the extended first practice session — but the bigger problems that had wrecked earlier weekends did not come back in the race. (formula1.com) ### Were they actually any faster? Not really, at least not in a meaningful way. Aston Martin locked out the back row in Sprint Qualifying, then qualified 18th and 19th for the Grand Prix, with Alonso just ahead of Stroll. In the race, Alonso climbed to 15th and(formula1.com)he back. (formula1.com) ### So why did the team sound positive? Because reliability is the floor for everything else. If the car keeps breaking, the engineers cannot properly evaluate setup changes, aero behavior, tyre use, or future upgrades. Miami gave Aston Martin something it has barely had this year — clean mileage from both cars across Sprint and Grand Prix running. Basically, they finally got a weekend of usable evidence instead of another pile of interrupted sessions. (formula1.com) ### Where does Honda fit into this? Honda is central to the whole story. This is the first season of its works partnership with Aston Martin, and the early rollout has been rough enough that even Adrian Newey admitted the AMR26 package came together late after p(formula1.com)not suddenly jump into the points fight. (formula1.com) ### How did Miami change the wider midfield picture? It mostly highlighted how far Aston Martin still has to go. Formula 1’s Miami analysis pointed to upgraded cars reshuffling the order, with Mercedes surging and Red Bull improving, while Ferrari had a much tougher read on its own package. Aston Martin, by contrast, did not arrive with a big visible performance step. Its win was smaller and more basic — stop the bleeding first, then chase speed later. (formula1.com) ### What happens next? Aston Martin says upgrades are coming later in the year, but Miami showed the immediate priority was survival. Alonso’s message after the race was basically: yes, there is progress, but there is also still a big gap. That makes Miami feel less like a turnaround and more like the first stable platform the team can build from. (formula1.com) ### Bottom line? Miami did not prove Aston Martin is back. It proved Aston Martin can finally complete a weekend without falling apart — and right now, that is the prerequisite for everything else.