2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[diffuser]

Just a complete charlie foxtrot. Honda dropped the ball on the engine side again but a lot of the blame has to go on Newey and the team. The car itself is sub par, the gearbox is a complete disaster and everything just feels half baked. It is mind boggling that they didn't have people embedded with their engine supplier working every day to monitor performance and integration with the chassis and gearbox. That was a total failure of leadership and project management. Honda screwed the pooch but its Aston who let them do it. They wouldn't be in a substantially different competitive position with a Mercedes or RBPT engine.

I guess reading it 1 million times wasn't enought, we needed to read it 1 million and 1.

[Xyz22]

In terms of performance this is the worst power unit of modern Formula 1. Absolutely embarrassing.

[diffuser]

Whilst I admit Honda have massively screwed-up, the _potential_ is there. You may, or may not choose to believe that it will work out. The interesting question is, where do you think Aston would be with a Merc engine right now?

Well ahead of Williams and audi is certain. It's hard to say cause things would have been MUCH different. Instead of winter testing being a waste of time, they would have gotten real data and probably the Hungary update would have arrived in Japan instead of spinning their wheels waiting for the vibrations to stop.

[Sasha]

Key Engineers at Honda have stated that working with AM was beyond hard and nothing compared to working with RB.
I was given the hint of two many chiefs and no order in AM.
Honda always is a easy target.

There was hints from the first day of testing when the Car wasn't ready.
Everyone else tested the Car & PU in a AVL like dyno before hand.
How far did this put them back?
I say the whole season.

I bet the negative points will come flying because people hate the truth.

[Xyz22]

The car is also nothing special, no one is saying that they have an amazing car. The engine is significantly, significantly worse. It's not a F1 engine.

[mzso]

Key Engineers at Honda have stated that working with AM was beyond hard and nothing compared to working with RB.
I was given the hint of two many chiefs and no order in AM.

Really? Where?

[diffuser]

Key Engineers at Honda have stated that working with AM was beyond hard and nothing compared to working with RB.
I was given the hint of two many chiefs and no order in AM.
Honda always is a easy target.

There was hints from the first day of testing when the Car wasn't ready.
Everyone else tested the Car & PU in a AVL like dyno before hand.
How far did this put them back?
I say the whole season.

I bet the negative points will come flying because people hate the truth.

That played a part in the vibration issue but it has nothing to do with the PU performance.

You know Sasha, you're not Honda. You don't need to defend them. You don't need to make excuses for them.
Also, take what people here are saying with a pinch of salt. People are really frustrated right now.

[Rikrikrik]

What I’d most like to know is whether Honda knows where they’re headed with the 2027 engine so it can get closer to the others — something like: “We can have an engine as good as Ferrari’s, we know what went wrong because we underestimated the 2026 project, and we’re already making changes for the 2027 project; we just can’t improve this year because the current project is limited” — or whether they’re truly lost, have no idea what to do, and next year is going to be depressing all over again.

[TyreSlip]

What I’d most like to know is whether Honda knows where they’re headed with the 2027 engine so it can get closer to the others — something like: “We can have an engine as good as Ferrari’s, we know what went wrong because we underestimated the 2026 project, and we’re already making changes for the 2027 project; we just can’t improve this year because the current project is limited” — or whether they’re truly lost, have no idea what to do, and next year is going to be depressing all over again.

Not a lot has been said for the last month or so from Honda. I know their project leader is retiring early.

Orihara stated they expect to be much closer to the leading engines. We will have to wait and see.