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Paul Aron will make history on Friday at the Hungarian Grand Prix — and barely anyone is talking about it. When the Alpine reserve driver heads out for FP1 at the Hungaroring, he becomes the first driver this season to have sampled two completely different 2026 cars from two different teams. His earlier outings for Audi at Barcelona and the Red Bull Ring, now followed by this weekend's run in the current Alpine-Mercedes, give him a cross-team, cross-power-unit profile that no other driver on the championship standings page can match. Ayumu Iwasa has driven for both Red Bull and Racing Bulls in 2026, but those cars share an engine. Aron's double is genuinely unique.
The numbers behind it are staggering for someone without a race seat. Since his first Alpine run at the 2024 post-Abu Dhabi rookie test — a call that came while he was still holding his first beer at the F2 prize-giving — Aron has accumulated roughly 10,000km of F1 testing. He has driven a 2023, 2024 and 2025 Alpine-Renault, a 2025 Sauber-Ferrari, a 2026 Audi and, from this weekend, the 2026 Alpine-Mercedes. Six different cars. Multiple power unit philosophies. All without a permanent seat.
In Barcelona, he qualified that Audi sixth-fastest in FP1 on a comparable run programme to race driver Gabriel Bortoleto. Audi racing director Allan McNish was direct in his assessment: quick, clean, tidy, excellent feedback. Mattia Binotto called him fast from the very first lap despite never having tested the car on track beforehand. Strong words from a team fighting to establish itself in the new regulations.
Aron himself knows mileage is not the end goal. Former F2 rivals Kimi Antonelli, Franco Colapinto and Oliver Bearman — drivers he finished ahead of in the 2024 standings — are all racing on Sundays. He is not. The F1 calendar keeps turning, and FP1 appearances, however impressive, are not race starts. Hungary gives him another shop window. Whether anyone opens the door remains the only question that matters.