Aston Martin’s 2026 F1 car will be launched in Saudi Arabia on February 9 but three weeks before that Honda will host a unique event in Tokyo on January 20.
The manufacturer says it will “reveal” its engine alongside sharing its aspirations and explaining the new regulations.
Honda president and CEO Toshihiro Mibe, Aston Martin F1 team chairman Lawrence Stroll, and F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali will all speak at the Tokyo event, which will be livestreamed on YouTube in English and Japanese.
Honda seems to be very confident about their engines, all signs pointing to be very positive, expecting regular podiumsFNTC wrote: ↑16 Dec 2025, 13:08https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/hond ... ne-launch/
Aston Martin’s 2026 F1 car will be launched in Saudi Arabia on February 9 but three weeks before that Honda will host a unique event in Tokyo on January 20.
The manufacturer says it will “reveal” its engine alongside sharing its aspirations and explaining the new regulations.Honda president and CEO Toshihiro Mibe, Aston Martin F1 team chairman Lawrence Stroll, and F1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali will all speak at the Tokyo event, which will be livestreamed on YouTube in English and Japanese.
Will they forfeit the test in Montmelo in January?!Aston Martin’s 2026 F1 car will be launched in Saudi Arabia on February 9
Wow!
Am I right that there is no battery weight limit, only a weight limit for the PU as a whole?TyreSlip wrote: ↑17 Dec 2025, 15:51Wild rumour if true... solid-state batteries for the new Honda power unit?
https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-ho ... /10784997/
This would be a game changer if it worked. Without additional anode material, there would be weight and size savings with a solid-state design.
I think that is the main challenge from an aerodynamic standpoint. Not to mention how the transition between the two modes is handled.
Maybe a slight tangent but it’s a major flaw in the regs imho to have a minimum weight limit for the PU … at all tbh but certainly one that’s easily met. Given the objective is to reduce the overall car weight - and even the modest reduction for 2026 is apparently difficult to hit - incentivising the PU manufacturers to find weight reductions seems a particularly good way to drive this down.bananapeel23 wrote: ↑17 Dec 2025, 16:19Wow!
The MGU-H must've been muffling the sound A LOT. This sounds a lot more raw.
Am I right that there is no battery weight limit, only a weight limit for the PU as a whole?TyreSlip wrote: ↑17 Dec 2025, 15:51Wild rumour if true... solid-state batteries for the new Honda power unit?
https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-ho ... /10784997/
This would be a game changer if it worked. Without additional anode material, there would be weight and size savings with a solid-state design.
Still. Batteries are very dense and sit extremely far down in the car. If it's easy to hit the engine weight floor without solid state, the benefits of the battery being replaced by a solid-state one would only really be minor packaging implications, since you can't really ballast any further down than the battery already sits.
You could theoretically load the car up with lead or tungsten ballast as far down as possible and perhaps move it around a little during setup to change the overall weight distribution, and the smaller battery would perhaps allow slightly tighter packaging, but it probably isn't a massive upgrade.
Still, it would be amazing to see solid state batteries make their way out of labs at last. If the engine weight floor is difficult to hit while maximising performance, solid state would also be a really big deal and offer huge benefits.
