The upgrade has been a long time coming for Aston Martin. Back in July, he made clear the Zandvoort step would be big but not miraculous: “We are aiming to get a reasonable big step rather than bring a small step. I don’t think we’re going to catch up Mercedes or RBPT by one step, but we’re going to bring a reasonable big step.” For Aston Martin, the summer was always going to be the reset moment. Whether meeting internal targets in a filming day translates to competitive gains on race weekend is the part nobody can confirm until the cars actually line up in the Netherlands.