2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[CHT]

Alonso must have wanted to announce his new contract with AMR at Spanish GP, but I guess negotiation with the team must have hit a snag due to his salary demands.
Or Honda refusal to pay part of his EUR40m a season salary. So where will Alonson be next year? Or which racing series can afford this kind of salary?

[bigblue]

Two somewhat contradictory sets of statements (at least it seems so to me).

"The engine was very bad today," Alonso said. "I think the boost control was difficult today. I nearly stalled on the pitstops. "With some of the blue flags as well, letting the people go and slowing down. The engine was struggling to recover after that, so I was losing a lot of time on the blue flags. "We need to analyse what happened."

(from the-race.com, haven't seen these anywhere else, but the-race should be reliable enough).

Shintaro Orihara, Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer: "Today's result isn't what we wanted, but we need to look at the learnings and improvement points that we can take forward to future races. Over the past three races we've improved the driveability of our spec 2 power unit, which was introduced at the Dutch Grand Prix. By reducing the driveability issue, we can now focus on the performance side. This weekend, for example, we changed some calibrations to improve this aspect and session-by-session we saw some good signs in the data. This shows us all that we are working in the right direction."

(from grandprix.com, also Honda F1 posts on X, facebook).

Maybe Alonso's comments explain what Stroll was saying about not having enough power to spin the car around? Still seems a bit far-fetched, but maybe? idk.

[PlatinumZealot]

We know the engine is weaker but the chassis aint that great either. Singapore will be the ultimate test of where the chassis really is at.

1 -> Poor chassis -> lower speed through corners/straights -> lesser recharge -> lower deployment -> lower speed through corners -> doesn't expose chassis limitations -> chassis remains poor -> 1
2 -> poor PU -> lower speed through corners/straights -> lesser recharge -> lower deployment -> chassis not getting pushed to the limits -> doesn't expose deployment algorithm limitations -> PU remains poor -> 2

See how loops 1 and 2 are intertwined with each other due to PU not exposing chassis' problems and chassis not exposing PU problems ? There is no 'ultimate test of chassis' anywhere, for AMR26 in 2026.

You are overcomplicating things. All one has to do is compare the field positioning in qualifying in Singapore. If the two drivers are competing solidly in Q2 or even threaten Q3 that means something doesn't it?

[diffuser]

Alonso must have wanted to announce his new contract with AMR at Spanish GP, but I guess negotiation with the team must have hit a snag due to his salary demands.
Or Honda refusal to pay part of his EUR40m a season salary. So where will Alonson be next year? Or which racing series can afford this kind of salary?

The word is he has a contract, they're just using that to black mail the FIA into giving Honda more help.

[diffuser]

Two somewhat contradictory sets of statements (at least it seems so to me).

"The engine was very bad today," Alonso said. "I think the boost control was difficult today. I nearly stalled on the pitstops. "With some of the blue flags as well, letting the people go and slowing down. The engine was struggling to recover after that, so I was losing a lot of time on the blue flags. "We need to analyse what happened."

(from the-race.com, haven't seen these anywhere else, but the-race should be reliable enough).

Shintaro Orihara, Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer: "Today's result isn't what we wanted, but we need to look at the learnings and improvement points that we can take forward to future races. Over the past three races we've improved the driveability of our spec 2 power unit, which was introduced at the Dutch Grand Prix. By reducing the driveability issue, we can now focus on the performance side. This weekend, for example, we changed some calibrations to improve this aspect and session-by-session we saw some good signs in the data. This shows us all that we are working in the right direction."

(from grandprix.com, also Honda F1 posts on X, facebook).

Maybe Alonso's comments explain what Stroll was saying about not having enough power to spin the car around? Still seems a bit far-fetched, but maybe? idk.

Good stuff thanks!

[diffuser]

Wouldn't it be Audi because RBPT already supply 2 teams? Audi would have to be the default supplier for any team without an engine.

That only applies if you can’t find a PU supplier. Then the manufacturer supplying the fewest teams would be forced to supply you. That doesn't prevent a team from trying to work a deal with any manufacturer willing.

[diffuser]

Barely faster than the Caddillac. We know the engine is weaker but the chassis aint that great either. Singapore will be the ultimate test of where the chassis really is at.

Honda is fooling us on the engine. The ADUO was actually more about reliability than power methinks.

Alonso lost 20 points of downforce on lap 1, we really didn't see the car's race pace in Madrid.

[KimiRai]

So... MBS has said that Alonso confided he’s going to continue. If true, Sulayem doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut. On literally everything.

[CHT]

AMR struggle may not be down to Honda engine only and the partnership agreement which was signed 3 years ago is surely legally binding to benefit mutual interest.

The only way to break the agreement at this stage will be has to be mutual consent, which in my opinion will not be acceptable for Honda since doing so will mean shutting down their F1 program.

https://www.autoweek.com/racing/formula ... struggles/

Audi is unlikely to supply PU to AMR because Audi is in F1 to promote their brands under the Audi Group, which include Lamborghini and Bentley. I think it will be a branding disaster for Audi if AMR using Audi engine beats Audi team on track.

AMR will likely have to stick with Honda for 2027 and 2028 may be too late for the team to adapt to new PU since by 2029 team will be preparing to engine new regulation, which could be a less complicated V8 PU.

[etusch]

It would be great to face reality

Yea the chasis is still midfield tier, bang average. No delusions here. But it was a good effort to climb from absolute crap to something slightly respectable. Honda now needs to do the same (considering longer engine lead times). Is that fair?

…Keeping sleeping Or still somewhere very close to where they are already and a painful wake up. You are very optimistic about a car which can improve 2.5 with one update.
But most importantly you have a midfielder mindset.

[SiLo]

So... MBS has said that Alonso confided he’s going to continue. If true, Sulayem doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut. On literally everything.

is this surprising to anyone? the man is a buffoon

[collindsilva]

It would be great to face reality

Yea the chasis is still midfield tier, bang average. No delusions here. But it was a good effort to climb from absolute crap to something slightly respectable. Honda now needs to do the same (considering longer engine lead times). Is that fair?

…Keeping sleeping Or still somewhere very close to where they are already and a painful wake up. You are very optimistic about a car which can improve 2.5 with one update.
But most importantly you have a midfielder mindset.

It will be difficult to judge the chassis with all the issues, engine power, drivability, deployment etc, furthermore, the data collection now is limited to 1 car only, with either of the one retiring every race. The situation doesn't look good for team, maybe they should ask for some extra testing time.

[TyreSlip]

Honda replaces its F1 development chief.

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/hond ... ip-change/

[etusch]

We know the engine is weaker but the chassis aint that great either. Singapore will be the ultimate test of where the chassis really is at.

1 -> Poor chassis -> lower speed through corners/straights -> lesser recharge -> lower deployment -> lower speed through corners -> doesn't expose chassis limitations -> chassis remains poor -> 1
2 -> poor PU -> lower speed through corners/straights -> lesser recharge -> lower deployment -> chassis not getting pushed to the limits -> doesn't expose deployment algorithm limitations -> PU remains poor -> 2

See how loops 1 and 2 are intertwined with each other due to PU not exposing chassis' problems and chassis not exposing PU problems ? There is no 'ultimate test of chassis' anywhere, for AMR26 in 2026.

We also observe the following: there is a chassis on the grid that possesses the best engine but barely competes with the chassis that has the worst engine. Admittedly, it is impossible to tell from the outside exactly how much time is being lost to which factor. If another chassis were using this same engine, more meaningful comparisons could be made.
There is also another aspect to consider. While a car's rear grip and downforce affect the electricity generated during braking, I do not believe this influence is quite as dramatic when the engine itself acts as the generator. In other words, when two different cars charge their batteries, you would normally expect both to utilize the same amount of energy over the same duration. However, if the engine power is low, electric power must compensate for the deficit; if the car has high drag both electric power and engine power must work to overcome it. If these power reserves are consumed during acceleration, you are left with nothing while the others continue to accelerate further. In this context, Alonso might simply feel that the car lacks pace, but the engineers ought to know the reasons why it isn't performing.

[FNTC]

Race report from Honda: https://honda.racing/f1/post/f1-2026-rd14-race
They included the Lance quote too.

Shintaro Orihara ー
Honda

Today’s result isn’t what we wanted, but we need to look at the learnings and improvement points that we can take forward to future races.

Over the past three races we’ve improved the driveability of our spec 2 power unit, which was introduced at the Dutch Grand Prix. By reducing the driveability issue, we can now focus on the performance side. This weekend, for example, we changed some calibrations to improve this aspect and session-by-session we saw some good signs in the data. This shows us all that we are working in the right direction.