2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[V10FURY]

I am feeling like we have entered a Twilight Zone/Black Mirror episode where Fernando Alonso will never get a good car again because of karma/past deeds coming back to ensure it always goes horribly wrong. From the late entry of Honda back into F1, with most of their staff being poached by Red Bull, this was always going to be a tight timeline. This damning interview with Koji Watanabe in January should have been a key to how this was going to play out:

Asked to assess where Honda is at, Watanabe was frank: “To be honest, not everything is going well, so there are many areas where we are struggling, but nothing fatal has happened that we cannot overcome.
“In this situation, we are quietly concentrating on improving performance and reliability.
“Aston Martin also wants to keep building cars that reflect Adrian [Newey]’s vision, so I think the next step for us on the power unit side is to figure out how to adapt to that."

Honda are behind, and part of the blame has to fall on Newey/Aston Martin of course for being so late on the chassis side of things. Newey says they started 4 months behind and now that doesn't appear to be sandbagging or anything else except what it is. They are months away from having a competitive car let alone one that can even finish a race.

The in-house gearbox also potentially looks like another area of major concern if reports are true that it is not able to withstand the Honda engine, and the casing is the issue. Why didn't Honda make the gearbox? I think this is a case of all of these separate pieces finally getting assembled last minute for Barcelona and they are not in synch at all.

They cannot know if the chassis is any good as yet because they can barely top 300Kmh for more than a few laps before another issue arises. No race sims, no qualifying sims, no Pirelli tire testing compounds, with the least number of laps compared to every other team including Cadillac and Audi. That is a difficult start for a Cup car team, let alone a Formula 1 team!

I am not familiar with the exact rules for testing, but if it was allowed, shouldn't Aston Martin and Audi have brought 2 cars to testing this week at least? With Ferrari supplying 3 teams, Mercedes 4 teams, and Red Bull 2 teams, they all have a huge advantage over both Honda and Audi for mileage/testing purposes. If it wasn't in the rules both of these teams should have asked for an exception and been allowed to bring a second car each. If it was allowed and they didn't then that is just poor planning on both of them.

If testing doesn't go any better tomorrow, I think they will be in real danger of the 107% rule and not be able to take the grid anyway after flying all the way out to Australia unless a minor miracle happens in the new few weeks.

Let's see if they can complete more than 25 laps on Friday without any issues. They need to be able to set a 1 min 35 lap time or better, get over 100 laps without incident to be in any kind of shape to go racing in 3 weeks. If they cannot do this on the last day of testing, then I have zero hope for them this season. I hope Aston Martin can turn this around quickly and get on top of the many issues they obviously have. It would be great to see the old man, Fernando, on the top step of the podium again this year. I worry at this stage he will be lapped after 20 laps and then both cars broken shortly after that. I hope I am very wrong and Newey has an all-new car for Melbourne that can help them be competitive by round 7 or so. Last day tomorrow to bring something decent to the test....

[Leon Kennedy]

I don't think people within the team are blaming anything other than time. It is always easy to say in hindsight what the team could have done to be better prepared and that onus usually falls on leadership. In this case it could be Stroll Sr. or Andy Green not being on top of what they could have been prior to Newey's arrival. Should Green have been more closely scrutinizing the power unit regulation verbiage and checking to see if Honda was reading in-between the lines? Could a gearbox been developed the prior season to mate with the Mercedes unit such that they could already be familiar again with "teething" troubles of their own design? Could it be that the requested packaging of the drivetrain is a debilitating factor that requires clever solutions that aren't legal or are in the gray area or simply cannot be fabricated at the track? Yes, Yes, Yes, but all in hindsight.

The current voice of the team that I pay the most attention to is Mike Krack. He to me, right now, is like the Franz Tost that AMR needs. Without Tost, there would have been no RedBull Honda championships. I hope Krack can be the bridge that Tost was.

Dude, I don't know where you got this information but Andrew Green is no longer working in F1 with Aston Martin. And Regarding Tost, it was not him who was responsible, but Redbull itself who lent the Honda engine to Toro Rosso to test it and the following year they also adopted it (in 2019). He was simply the team principal and as a customer team he followed the directives of Red Bull, Horner above all.

Woah. You need to calm down.
Where did I say Andrew Green is no longer working in F1 with Aston Martin?

2nd, I am Japanese and know a thing or two about Honda from the Honda perspective thanks to former employees, retirees, current HRC staff. When I credit Tost, it was Tost who kept Honda from leaving. It was Tost who had a level head and never raised a voice in anger or blame. He was the opposite of Eric Boullier.

When I credit Tost, I am crediting how Honda MEGA appreciated Tost's respectfulness and approach. None of this blame game that Alonso and his camp seem to always bring. I would rather Krack as the voice of AMR than Pedro De LaRosa.

Dude I'm very calm, simply, Green no longer works at Aston Martin in f1, what does he have to do with Newey?

About Fran Tost, it's true, but without Redbull's support, he wouldn't have been able to do it. Let's just say it was his idea.

Regarding "blame-game": for me the comparison with the Red Bull has nothing to do with it and I'll explain why. Honda was coming off some dark years, but now it's coming off some winning years; more was certainly expected. And what Alonso went through, no other F1 driver would likely have survived. Think about Hamilton complaining about podiums and not having a winning car or do you think Verstappen would have resisted going into battle for the front and ending up at the back? I think many would not have raced at all. You should remember that Senna himself had squabbles and was paid a race-by-race salary.

Regarding each team, I remind you that there are sponsors and Aston Martin is also listed on the stock exchange, there are too many interests and you cannot simply accept fighting for the rear, the same McLaren lost many sponsors and suffered financial crises. Not all customer teams like Toro Rosso can accept finishing last.

In my opinion you should always look at the context.

[ispano6]

Dude, I don't know where you got this information but Andrew Green is no longer working in F1 with Aston Martin. And Regarding Tost, it was not him who was responsible, but Redbull itself who lent the Honda engine to Toro Rosso to test it and the following year they also adopted it (in 2019). He was simply the team principal and as a customer team he followed the directives of Red Bull, Horner above all.

Woah. You need to calm down.
Where did I say Andrew Green is no longer working in F1 with Aston Martin?

2nd, I am Japanese and know a thing or two about Honda from the Honda perspective thanks to former employees, retirees, current HRC staff. When I credit Tost, it was Tost who kept Honda from leaving. It was Tost who had a level head and never raised a voice in anger or blame. He was the opposite of Eric Boullier.

When I credit Tost, I am crediting how Honda MEGA appreciated Tost's respectfulness and approach. None of this blame game that Alonso and his camp seem to always bring. I would rather Krack as the voice of AMR than Pedro De LaRosa.

Dude I'm very calm, simply, Green no longer works at Aston Martin in f1, what does he have to do with Newey?

About Fran Tost, it's true, but without Redbull's support, he wouldn't have been able to do it. Let's just say it was his idea.

Regarding "blame-game": for me the comparison with the Red Bull has nothing to do with it and I'll explain why. Honda was coming off some dark years, but now it's coming off some winning years; more was certainly expected. And what Alonso went through, no other F1 driver would likely have survived. Think about Hamilton complaining about podiums and not having a winning car or do you think Verstappen would have resisted going into battle for the front and ending up at the back? I think many would not have raced at all. You should remember that Senna himself had squabbles and was paid a race-by-race salary.

Regarding each team, I remind you that there are sponsors and Aston Martin is also listed on the stock exchange, there are too many interests and you cannot simply accept fighting for the rear, the same McLaren lost many sponsors and suffered financial crises. Not all customer teams like Toro Rosso can accept finishing last.

In my opinion you should always look at the context.

In my opinion you should always look at it with a level head. Emotions break relationships and respect is hard to earn back.

[Badger]

The Race did a pretty funny analysis comparing Alonso's 23 lap run (before the problem) with the other race sims. Basically after 23 laps he would end up 1:20s behind Piastri and Verstappen on their full fuel race runs.

[FittingMechanics]

For a rule change, that was 4 years in the making, to be at the penultimate day of testing having not done a single race sim.. and the drivetrain still breaking. This is utterly unacceptable… regardless of last minute PU design changes.. to be so bad on the gearbox.. shame on you Aston!!

McLaren had a car that needed to pit 5 times and brakes that were burning. Few years later they are part of Big 4 and winning championship. Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew but maybe that works pays off down the line.

[Alo_Fan]

Sure, and you take a Redbull or McLaren gearbox made for their chassis and especially for their engine, how do you make it work with the Honda engine . It doesn't make sense, rather they should have asked Honda to make the gearbox, but as someone said it was difficult to integrate it with the suspension and chassis, in short they had to do an integration job in close contact, which is evidently missing. I expected more from Cowell on this. Now it is said that he is in Japan, because it is true that the ADUO is valid from Game 6, but you can start development now and have it completed by Game 6. Is there some clause that forces you to start development after Game 6? If so, we're in trouble.But I don't think so, I quote "diffuser" who usually knows everything about the regulations .

From the Spanish side, they were saying Honda are planning on bringing the new PU in race 7 (so not having to wait till mid season), they have tended to be pretty reliable last few years

So we have to hope that they are in the top 10 consistently until game 6. Because if you always score 0 points, then 300 points remain from game 7 onwards available (by the way if you win them all) and it would be It was impossible to win the championship at that point. But yes, maybe I was the one hoping for Fernando's third title, sadly.

I was like you, hoping for a chance of the title this year, if there's any chance it would be 2027, but not sure if he'll renew.

[PowerandtheGlory]

For a rule change, that was 4 years in the making, to be at the penultimate day of testing having not done a single race sim.. and the drivetrain still breaking. This is utterly unacceptable… regardless of last minute PU design changes.. to be so bad on the gearbox.. shame on you Aston!!

McLaren had a car that needed to pit 5 times and brakes that were burning. Few years later they are part of Big 4 and winning championship. Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew but maybe that works pays off down the line.

Lets hope so..

[Alo_Fan]

The Race did a pretty funny analysis comparing Alonso's 23 lap run (before the problem) with the other race sims. Basically after 23 laps he would end up 1:20s behind Piastri and Verstappen on their full fuel race runs.

Right now, completing race distance looks pretty unlikely unless there are major changes for Australia, if not, I am just waiting for Race 7

[mzso]

With the rules, once the PU is homologated on 1st March 2026, there's nothing stopping Honda from designing an upgrade for race 7, right?

Yes, and I believe they are already working on it, then it needs to be proven by ADUO that the engine itself is less powerfull.

Then for the gearbox and the rest, they need to work on it asap, but obviously they are doing it, and those 4 months late cannot be wiped by magic so... wait is all we can do.

But an engine upgrade requires a significant gap in power, like 2%, doesn't it?

[Jambier]

With the rules, once the PU is homologated on 1st March 2026, there's nothing stopping Honda from designing an upgrade for race 7, right?

Yes, and I believe they are already working on it, then it needs to be proven by ADUO that the engine itself is less powerfull.

Then for the gearbox and the rest, they need to work on it asap, but obviously they are doing it, and those 4 months late cannot be wiped by magic so... wait is all we can do.

But an engine upgrade requires a significant gap in power, like 2%, doesn't it?

3% I think.
And Honda might be at more than 3%.

Anyway: If they are not, then this is a good news, the engine is not at fault in terms of power. If not they can upgrade.
Reliability: It seems bad anyway, so they will have the opportunity to fix this, independently of ADUO

But then, I fear that even with an engine on par with the others in terms of power, the car will still be slow

[Miha_v]

When I credit Tost, I am crediting how Honda MEGA appreciated Tost's respectfulness and approach. None of this blame game that Alonso and his camp seem to always bring.

Sorry, but I can't imagine Max, Charles, Lewis, or any other top-tier driver being as patient as spaniard was during the Mclaren-Honda era. Sticking with the team, hoping, working hard (and yes, being occasionally cynical on the radio when full of adrenaline, while being helplessly overtaken by everyone left and right). Drivers usually complain and scream on the team-radio for minor annoyances during the race...

[mzso]

Anyway: If they are not, then this is a good news, the engine is not at fault in terms of power. If not they can upgrade.
Reliability: It seems bad anyway, so they will have the opportunity to fix this, independently of ADUO

Well, if it's like 25 HP of a thousand then it will be something like the Alpine gap last year, without any allowance to improve on it.

[diffuser]

I asked chatgpt to tell me what the Japanese Media is saying about Honda ...

Japanese Report (Feb 20, 2026) https://formula1-data.com/article/honda ... test-early

Headline: ホンダPU異常再び…アロンソ最終テストは早期終了
(“Honda PU anomaly again… Alonso ends last test early.”)

What it says (translated):

During the 5th day of the Bahrain test (Feb 19), Fernando Alonso only completed 68 laps and Aston Martin finished 15th fastest, about 4.7 s off the lead.

The session was cut short due to a problem related to the Honda power unit. Alonso said:

“Due to PU-related issues, we ended the session early and couldn’t complete our planned programme.”

The team faces both reliability issues and lack of pace compared to rivals.

The key point here is that the power unit directly caused a curtailed testing day — not just general unreliability.

[diffuser]

I asked chatgpt to tell me what the Japanese Media is saying about Honda ...

Japanese Report (Feb 20, 2026) https://formula1-data.com/article/honda ... test-early

Headline: ホンダPU異常再び…アロンソ最終テストは早期終了
(“Honda PU anomaly again… Alonso ends last test early.”)

What it says (translated):

During the 5th day of the Bahrain test (Feb 19), Fernando Alonso only completed 68 laps and Aston Martin finished 15th fastest, about 4.7 s off the lead.

The session was cut short due to a problem related to the Honda power unit. Alonso said:

“Due to PU-related issues, we ended the session early and couldn’t complete our planned programme.”

The team faces both reliability issues and lack of pace compared to rivals.

The key point here is that the power unit directly caused a curtailed testing day — not just general unreliability.

[wiktor977]

Engine hit 13 200 rpm during the rev spike.

When he stomped the throttle pedal? How do you know?

PU lost connection to the tires on downshift. Be that clutch, transmission, drive shaft, etc.

But there was no throttle imput by Alonso

What makes you say that?

Data