2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[wiktor977]

Does anybody knows the reason AM ditched Mercedes as their engine ? I cannot fathom how anyone would swap Mercedes for Honda

Also, how does RB have a decent engine? I think this situation is the most embarassing I have ever seen in F1

It's much better to have your own engine than rely on someone and their design choices that you have no control over

[V10FURY]

6 laps....no time set on the last day of testing for the 2026 season. What exactly are Aston Martin bringing to Australia to race in 3 weeks? There isn't enough time without more on track work to fix this huge mess obviously. Chassis, gearbox, engine, suspension, battery, hydraulics, harvesting, electric motor, aero and more are all issues and will not be magically fixed by Melbourne. If the penalties were not so draconian I would suggest Aston Martin skip the first two races and show up in Suzuka instead so they can work on fixing a bit of this cluster.

They are not finishing the races or qualifying inside 107% potentially based on this abysmal pre-season testing. How can this team be this atrocious with the talent involved, and Audi and Cadillac look pretty good? Fernando Alonso team radio will be epic this season as long as he stays in the car. Aston should call Red Bull/Ford and ask for their motor/gearbox/battery/ev setup, for next year as they would have capacity to supply them. Otherwise, this looks like Deja vu with Mclaren Honda all over again for Alonso, and we know what a disaster that was.

This season looks like a complete write off unless the team can turn around this turd burger of a car quickly. Hopefully by mid-season they are fighting for 10th/a point, which at the moment seems frankly ludicrous based on what they have shown so far. Audi looks like they will be decent, and only Cadillac so far has not impressed much, but they are way ahead of Aston Martin. Cadillac looks like they could race in Australia, be off the pace sure, but actually finish the race. So far, I see zero signs of that happening for this team. I really want to see an Alonso podium/win this season, but I am not sure that is likely for 2027, let alone this year. I hope I am wrong, and Newey and Honda will have an all-new car for Australia in 3 weeks that can compete with a reliable and competitive chassis, engine/drive train/gearbox. Then upgrade it over the first half of the season so they can get closer to the front 4.
I have fingers and toes crossed.......

[wiktor977]

Aged badly.

Sadly for F1, Honda is again underprepared. I didn't think that Newey can turn a whole organisation overnight into a winner, but a repeat of 2015 considering that Honda had a good engine in 2025 is inexcusable for me.

I wonder how many engineers who worked with Honda on old spec engines now work for RBPT or Mercedes?

none of the people from R&D Honda Sukura left. How many got reassigned back to this project. I don't know. The old PU was 100% designed in Japan.

What about HRC Milton Keynes employees how many of them left Honda? Also RBPT was making rebadged Honda engines so they had to know how it works etc.

[TyreSlip]

It's starting to sound like the whole issue is the power unit. If its the engine causing vibrations affecting the gearbox issues too, aston just doesnt want to throw Honda under the bus in the media, I think. What a mess...

yeah all these guys acting like its a contest between aston and honda for who screwed up less need a reality check. the last thing they want to do is turn it into some us vs them game. not aston not alonso, or whoever. they just need to know whats wrong, and work through their problems as fast as possible to make sure the whole year isnt a complete joke.

Clearly, Honda will be able to introduce multiple new specs before 2027 thanks to the ADUO system. They seem very far behind at the moment, though.

I have been thinking about this and wondering how does this help Honda catch up long-term if they are still restricted by the yearly budget cap?

[Rikrikrik]

The Japanese culture looks like calm and patiente, meawhile on Silverstone everyone wants immediatelly performance. The Honda looks like someone build slow and progressively and like who wanted test the engine in the track before works hard on it. Maybe the "culture shock" mentioned for Mike Krack goes to this way. Honda doesn't seem to be in any hurry, or doesnt works well on the pressure

[venkyhere]

It's starting to sound like the whole issue is the power unit. If its the engine causing vibrations affecting the gearbox issues too, aston just doesnt want to throw Honda under the bus in the media, I think. What a mess...

yeah all these guys acting like its a contest between aston and honda for who screwed up less need a reality check. the last thing they want to do is turn it into some us vs them game. not aston not alonso, or whoever. they just need to know whats wrong, and work through their problems as fast as possible to make sure the whole year isnt a complete joke.

In an ideal world, yes, the team will sing Kumbaya and gather around a campfire and show the entire world that they are 'together in it' (cliche').
But in the real world, where egos & reputations matter, if the team continues to be P15 and below until the summer break, that's when the proverbial will hit the fan, and the F1 media will have 'scoop' after 'scoop' about fights and blame games being 'leaked by insider/unknown sources'. Someone like Lawrence Stroll will have a hard time not-finding-someone-to-blame, for the kind of money-pit it would have become by then.

[AR3-GP]

yeah all these guys acting like its a contest between aston and honda for who screwed up less need a reality check. the last thing they want to do is turn it into some us vs them game. not aston not alonso, or whoever. they just need to know whats wrong, and work through their problems as fast as possible to make sure the whole year isnt a complete joke.

Clearly, Honda will be able to introduce multiple new specs before 2027 thanks to the ADUO system. They seem very far behind at the moment, though.

I have been thinking about this and wondering how does this help Honda catch up long-term if they are still restricted by the yearly budget cap?

There is additional money in the ADUO

[Bill]

Alonso said there expect better performance in second half of season. I think they knew they would be teething problems.the pu is not a disaster blowing up or leaking oils it's not even the engine that will run in Australia so let's wait and see.

[Badger]

One wonders how long Lawrence Stroll can keep bankrolling this team. They've gone from second best at the start of 2023 to worst in the sport within the space of three years, all whilst Lawrence has poured in money like there's no tomorrow. He's hired (and fired) some of the highest profile names in the sport, undoubtedly paying them a small fortune every time; he even gave Adrian "by Design" Newey equity in the team. It just feels like if this doesn't turn around very soon, like within the first quarter of the season, this could become a crisis in more ways than just performance. Saudi buyout?

[Badger]

Alonso said there expect better performance in second half of season. I think they knew they would be teething problems.the pu is not a disaster blowing up or leaking oils it's not even the engine that will run in Australia so let's wait and see.

The PU is not a disaster? That's a good one Bill

A few weeks ago you were complaining about the media hyping Mercedes ahead of the new rules, and them not giving Honda enough credit because they were "foreign". You said Honda was the best in the world, but now they can't be held accountable for this failure? Make it make sense.

[mzso]

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...

yeah, alonso showed a lot of patience back then that he didnt get credit for. some people are such big brand loyalists that theyll hold a grudge about anyone who would ever dare speak ill of their brand. i guess he coulda always just left and drove for haas, who were regularly beating mclaren back then with that ferrari PU in the back

Yeah, super F-ing patient... Whining all the time, throwing mud at Honda, meanwhile claiming they have the best chassis, hand-in-hand with Boullier. They of course got trashed with the Renault engine with the "best chassis". Meanwhile they were even reports of Alonso calling some of the shots within the team...
It was so toxic that I actually rooted for McLaren to fail, which they did spectacularly. And didn't at all felt sorry for him. He deserved what he got. With his behavior and attitude only McLaren wanted him in the first place, so he had nowhere to go but away from F1. (Until Renault got desperate enough)

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...

Seriously? How do you guys have such gross hallucinations? Alonso was one of the all tie most toxic drivers at that time.
Leclerc (foolishly) tied himself to a team that constantly lets him down, with the car, strategies, and team orders. Yet he hardly said a bad word.

[Bill]

Alonso said there expect better performance in second half of season. I think they knew they would be teething problems.the pu is not a disaster blowing up or leaking oils it's not even the engine that will run in Australia so let's wait and see.

The PU is not a disaster? That's a good one Bill

A few weeks ago you were complaining about the media hyping Mercedes ahead of the new rules, and them not giving Honda enough credit because they were "foreign". You said Honda was the best in the world, but now they can't be held accountable for this failure? Make it make sense.

Yes I sincerely believe they will be the best but information about problems is scares first I don't know why stroll problems was when he beached the car ,second alonso problem from yesterday they say they identified a problem with the battery but that was just a symptom of a bigger problem that they have identified on benches but they are not telling us what it is.Honda are always aggressive with f1 tech they take risk with novel technologies and with that comes pain of going through a development process. Newey too is uncompromising in his design so his cars always had dodgey reability. so if everything got fixed they would be competitive.

[SealTheRealDeal]

will AMR able to complete race distance in Australia? I really doubt it.

It is same as in 2015. It will take another 3 years by the time rule will change.... I don't know the logic of Honda in F1. they came 2015 screw Mclaren for 3 years then with RB. after that they gone now came back and doing same screw job with AMR.

If they have all the engine experience with RB why they are still struggling? It does seems, all the people who worked with Honda now with RB-Ford. It is a circle 0 again for Honda.

Yeah, I don't understand this.
I don't think it will take that long cause there are no restrictions on what they can change. There was significant head winds in 2015. Their original design and regulation on how much could be changed from year to year had painted Honda into a corner. It wasn't till 2017 when they allowed them to change "whatever they wanted" that they started to catch up. That's basically what the regs are in 2026.

When do you consider Honda to have caught up in the previous regs? 2017-2021 was a 4 year wait, we might have NA V8s with simplified Hybrids by then.

[mzso]

This power unit is a complete disaster so far... So they have battery issues too...

The battery issue is the only issue so far that has been verified. Everything else is just rumors.

So a battery related issue made the car lose drive sound bogus to me.they have running short stints since the test started so was it because of battery related issues too .they is nothing new here they have been running shorts stints since day one they never did long runs.

Maybe they killed the batteries during the engine runaway. They didn't say it caused the loss of drive.

A few years back the Honda engine had the same issues with Mclaren. Fans of Honda tried to pin it all to Mclaren and their very tight chassis while ridiculing different opinions from the fans of Mclaren. How the tables have turned and we were proven right when we were saying that Honda had issues fundamentally. What is their excuse this time to have gone so many steps back?

Maybe the fact that you don't know anything about what's actually wrong (neither does anyone else) should be enough? Only time will tell what works how well on the car.

[Badger]

Alonso said there expect better performance in second half of season. I think they knew they would be teething problems.the pu is not a disaster blowing up or leaking oils it's not even the engine that will run in Australia so let's wait and see.

The PU is not a disaster? That's a good one Bill

A few weeks ago you were complaining about the media hyping Mercedes ahead of the new rules, and them not giving Honda enough credit because they were "foreign". You said Honda was the best in the world, but now they can't be held accountable for this failure? Make it make sense.

Yes I sincerely believe they will be the best but information about problems is scares first I don't know why stroll problems was when he beached the car ,second alonso problem from yesterday they say they identified a problem with the battery but that was just a symptom of a bigger problem that they have identified on benches but they are not telling us what it is.Honda are always aggressive with f1 tech they take risk with novel technologies and with that comes pain of going through a development process. Newey too is uncompromising in his design so his cars always had dodgey reability. so if everything got fixed they would be competitive.

Profound insight. Question is why "the best" would need so many things to be fixed when everyone else is doing fine?