Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack has revealed that it is "weighing on everyone" within the British outfit that an upgrade is needed to help turn its results around.
The Silverstone-based team has been rooted to the back of the grid since the introduction of the new power unit regulations, largely due to poor power unit performance and reliability.
Across the seven completed rounds, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso have each suffered four retirements, although the two-time world champion did secure a solitary point in Monaco.
That point has been the sole highlight of Aston Martin's season so far, with Alonso and Stroll both largely helpless given the limitations of the AMR26 currently at their disposal.
Aston Martin has accepted the reality of its situation and that improvements must be made; however, its first upgrade package of 2026 is not expected to arrive until either just before or shortly after the summer break.
While the wait for new parts continues, Krack is confident that more pace can be extracted from the current package and believes the team still needs to address some of its underlying issues.
Asked how much longer Aston Martin can go without upgrades, Krack told select media, including RacingNews365: "Yeah, I agree with you, and it's also weighing on everyone. You can feel it in the garage, and you can feel it, especially with the drivers.
"We've discussed it before; it's a very difficult situation. On the other hand, we have strong leadership, and the decision was made as to when to introduce the upgrades. It's up to all of us to commit to that decision, even if it's difficult.
"It is our job to keep motivation high and to learn as much as we can. I've said it before: I think there are a lot of things we can improve on this car.
"It would be easy to say that we're just going round in circles and waiting for the upgrades, but some of the problems we have will still be there, so we need to solve them. We need to use the opportunities we have now to solve them, or at least improve."
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