Honda made significant changes to their 2026 power unit plans after Adrian Newey joined Aston Martin last year, the manufacturer has revealed. The new partnership between Aston Martin and Honda faced a tough start in pre-season testing, with technical issues limiting the AMR26’s mileage and top speed.
Honda made significant changes to their 2026 power unit plans after Adrian Newey joined Aston Martin last year, the manufacturer has revealed.
The new partnership between Aston Martin and Honda faced a tough start in pre-season testing, with technical issues limiting the AMR26’s mileage and top speed.
But it wasn’t just the engine that was causing problems. Newey’s bold chassis design has also led to overheating issues, which explains why the car is now filled with cooling vents.
This week, there were reports suggesting that Newey’s unyielding approach was ‘shackling’ Honda’s ability to make improvements.
Honda explains Adrian Newey orders and impact on 2026 F1 engine
After leaving Red Bull in 2024, Newey wasn’t able to begin working at Aston Martin until March of the following year. By then, Honda’s power unit was already deep into development.
Satoshi Tsunoda, head of Honda’s F1 engine project, has said that the legendary designer ordered sweeping changes after his arrival.
“Since Mr. Newey joined Aston Martin in March 2025, almost everything we’ve done up until now has changed,” Tsunoda explained, via Autosport Web.
“We haven’t changed the engine structure, of course, but everything else, including the peripheral equipment and how it’s attached to the car body, has changed.”
“Newey asked us: ‘Can’t you do it this way?’ And we were running out of time.”
On the chassis side, Newey said Aston Martin fell four months behind their competitors as they waited for his design to be wind-tunnel-ready. They only left the garage for the first time on the penultimate day of Barcelona testing after a late arrival.
Honda open up on Aston Martin issues and the size of their problems
Martin Brundle has called Aston Martin’s situation ‘dire’, and Honda aren’t hiding from the scale of their problems.
Speaking in a press conference in Japan, HRC managing director Ikuo Takeishi acknowledged that the outlook after testing is ‘severe’. There is only one week to go before the opening round in Australia.
Takeishi said, via AS-Web: “We believe the results of the pre-season tests are extremely serious and severe.
“HRC Sakura’s engineers and on-site staff are making considerable efforts to improve the situation and are working as quickly as possible to make improvements in preparation for the opening race.”
Back in the UK, some Aston Martin staff are barely sleeping as they work double and triple overtime. That effort is apparently being mirrored in Japan.
Read more:
Category: General Sports
