Valtteri Bottas shares Aston Martin rumour in 'scared' admission

Valtteri Bottas has helped spread the rumour that virtually the entire Aston Martin has been redesigned ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Finnish driver and his Cadillac team have comfortably enjoyed the measure on the AMR26 for most of the campaign, with the Lawrence Stroll-owned outfit deliberately holding off developing its package, with Aston Martin having been plagued with issues since F1 pre-season testing.

Conversely, the fledgling American operation has consistently ported upgrades to its car, but Bottas is now "scared" that all that hard work could be reversed.

Aston Martin arrives in Budapest this weekend with a comprehensive update that the team hopes will transform its fortunes after its dismal start to the year, and there has been considerable intrigue about the scale of the step forward.

Sitting 10th in the constructors' championship with a single point, having deliberately held back upgrades to deliver one significant step rather than a series of incremental changes, the strategy has come at a cost for the Silverstone-based squad.

At the campaign curtain-raiser in Melbourne, Fernando Alonso was seven-tenths quicker in qualifying than Sergio Perez in the sister Cadillac, but that advantage has swung to a substantial deficit in recent rounds.

In qualifying last weekend in Belgium, both Aston Martins were cut adrift at the tail of the field, with Alonso and Lance Stroll over two seconds slower than the Cadillacs — though Spa-Francorchamps is a circuit where the underpowered Honda power unit and its energy-management limitations were particularly exposed, unlike at the Hungaroring.

Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack confirmed the scope of the update, saying: "The upgrade is a significant aerodynamic upgrade and a weight reduction."

And reports suggest the package could be worth up to two seconds a lap, which, if accurate, would bring the AMR26 back in line with — or even ahead of — Cadillac's MAC-26.

For Bottas, whose side currently sits 11th and last in the championship on zero points, Aston Martin's potential leap forward is a source of both intrigue and concern.

"Yeah, I think there are lots of rumours," the 10-time grand prix winner told media, including RacingNews365. "Most are saying it's a big step for them, but we'll see as the car hits the track."

However, it did not stop the 36-year-old from fuelling speculation about what exactly has changed on Aston Martin's car.

"One rumour I heard is that the only thing that is the same as the current car is the front suspension; everything else is new [apparently], so let's see," Bottas added.

"[I'm] quite curious about that, but at the same time, a little bit scared in a way that if they make a big step, then we're at the back.

"But in the end, we need to focus on our job; we shouldn't waste our energy on that."