If the update cannot come in time before Australia, I wonder if there was some way Aston Martin could renege on racing there? Why would Aston Martin want to waste part of their budget allocation on a defective engine that they would only use for one race?
It's probably Ben Hodgkinson doing his impression of Rodney Dangerfield! ... "No Respect!"
It's probably in the contract for all the advertisers on the car. They pay what they pay for AMF1 to go to 24 races. They don't want to start paying back advertisers.
According to the source, Honda told Aston Martin that the main technical issues of the power unit and related gearbox revealed in the pre-season work could be paved by the Chinese Grand Prix to be resolved by the time of the Chinese Grand Prix.
While admitting that the early days of the program were more severe than expected, the root cause has been identified, and the recovery plan is also progressing smoothly.
The short-term goal is to ensure a stable and certain level of competitiveness from the opening round. On top of that, optimization work is expected to continue through the early flyaway round. Internally, we have positioned the Chinese round as a milestone to introduce a more complete package.
Actually that article is poorly written as it says hopes to find the solutions, which is incorrect. It points to a Japanese article as a source which is better https://shigasports.com/f1/honda-confid ... e_vignettediffuser wrote: ↑24 Feb 2026, 00:04It's probably in the contract for all the advertisers on the car. They pay what they pay for AMF1 to go to 24 races. They don't want to start paying back advertisers.
I mean if they could get the PU to run detuned and the gearbox to hold together, they could use Australia as another 3 day test to collect more data and tune the chassis.FNTC wrote: ↑24 Feb 2026, 00:10If there is a new engine package in the pipeline for China, I suspect they will treat Melbourne as a test session. We will see. I think it's pretty unlikely they finish the race considering the Bahrain test. Hopefully there is something to the China rumour.
Auto translated:According to the source, Honda told Aston Martin that the main technical issues of the power unit and related gearbox revealed in the pre-season work could be paved by the Chinese Grand Prix to be resolved by the time of the Chinese Grand Prix.While admitting that the early days of the program were more severe than expected, the root cause has been identified, and the recovery plan is also progressing smoothly.
The short-term goal is to ensure a stable and certain level of competitiveness from the opening round. On top of that, optimization work is expected to continue through the early flyaway round. Internally, we have positioned the Chinese round as a milestone to introduce a more complete package.
I understand your idea, but don't even think that they will be satisfied with arriving 8 active in the builders after the investments made. Their goal is to finish in the top 5 this year.V10FURY wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 19:23I think considering the mess they are in with limited time to fix it before the homologation of the drivetrain next week, Aston Martin will have a very difficult time recovering. I expect them to qualify 10th or 11th in the first 4 races and treat them like extended test sessions to get on top of all of the issues that they have. Cadillac looks like they might be a touch slower in overall pace, but that remains to be seen for sure until Q1 in Australia.
If they get the Adou allowances to upgrade the engine/ drivetrain by race 7 as has been reported then they might move up to 8-9th place by the end of the year. This off season has been so diabolical it is almost impossible to overcome what little running they have done in the off season to prepare to race this 2026 car.
The small good news for Aston Martin is the Suzuka race is early in the season. If they fail spectacularly in Hondas home race, with the entire country watching, this will be very beneficial for Aston Martin to get Honda to react in the strongest terms. Having worked with Japanese companies myself, and visited Japan on many occasions to work with the wonderful people there, it is sometimes like watching paint dry to get something accomplished. 5 meetings to agree on something that should have been a five minute discussion at most. Different ways of working for sure than many folks expect.
Adrian Newey alone cannot fix this disaster. Honda needs to at least match the Audi drivetrain in power, reliability, as well as batteryenergy/ harvesting by race 7 if possible for Aston Martin to have any chance of finishing the season above 10th in the constructors title.
Constructors Championship:
No engine upgrade : 10th this year
Engine upgrade: 8th this year
I hope I am very wrong as I want to see Alonso get at least a podium this year. Williams , Audi,and Cadillac are the current teams that looked the weakest in preseason testing. However I wouldn’t be surprised if Audi ends up a lot stronger by mid year and shortens the distance to Racing Bulls and Haas. 8th place
this year will not be easy, even with a better Honda package.
Theoretically yes, but practically, in my opinion, no. He joined RBPT on April 23, 2021, and finished gardening in May 2022. But yes, don't you think he still contributed?diffuser wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 20:42Bill, be nice .....Bill wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 20:12You are an idiot redbull powertrain program didnt exist to develop the Hondapowerunit.honda announced that 2021 will be there last year in f1 so they deployed a powerunit that was earmarked for 2022 in 2021 their last major upgrades and won the championship. Redbull started their own program because Honda was leaving f1 not help them. By the time redbull has there own team and buildings max was already a two time championship and pu were long frozen.McG wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 01:35
Classic case of not bothering to read up on who was responsible for the quick improvement of "Honda". Red Bull’s improvement followed the hiring of Mercedes power unit engineer Ben Hodgkinson to lead Red Bull Powertrains, which fundamentally changed how the so called Honda engine was developed, integrated, and operated. While the core architecture remained Honda’s on paper, Red Bull gained championship winning mechanical expertise in reliability optimisation, packaging, and extracting performance from the power unit in ways Honda had not achieved before in that chassis. In F1 operational control and engineering execution define real world performance, so although the design originated with Honda, the engine’s behaviour and results were shaped largely by Red Bull’s own power unit program. I'll never fully understand why people don't just fact check before posting.
Ben Hodgkinson joined RBPT in May 2022. RBR had already won 4 of the first 6 race before Ben had his first cup of coffee or tea at RBPT.
Ask Cardile. When he tried to skirt the gardening leave rules to start working for Aston, he found himself in front of a judge and ended up being delayed an extra month.Leon Kennedy wrote: ↑24 Feb 2026, 00:24Theoretically yes, but practically, in my opinion, no. He joined RBPT on April 23, 2021, and finished gardening in May 2022. But yes, don't you think he still contributed?diffuser wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 20:42Bill, be nice .....Bill wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 20:12
You are an idiot redbull powertrain program didnt exist to develop the Hondapowerunit.honda announced that 2021 will be there last year in f1 so they deployed a powerunit that was earmarked for 2022 in 2021 their last major upgrades and won the championship. Redbull started their own program because Honda was leaving f1 not help them. By the time redbull has there own team and buildings max was already a two time championship and pu were long frozen.
Ben Hodgkinson joined RBPT in May 2022. RBR had already won 4 of the first 6 race before Ben had his first cup of coffee or tea at RBPT.
I had read that the F1 team had purchased the rights to the Aston Martin name indefinitely.CHT wrote: ↑24 Feb 2026, 00:58Aston Martin to sell F1 branding rights as it warns of bigger loss.
AMR is no Redbull Energy, doesnt have so much cash to burn. Perhaps Honda will take over the naming rights soon?
https://www.reuters.com/business/uks-as ... 026-02-20/
yeah. there is a problem with the hybrid system (very simplistic view) but 80% of everything posted in here has some "political" angle to it. everyone is ignoring the few facts that we do have, because theyd rather spin a bunch of theories into a reality that makes them feel better. brand loyalty runs deep.Badger wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 11:02Yup, but what we know for sure is they had a battery issue, and they were limited in running because they were running out of spares. And as far as credible reporting goes it seems pretty solid that there's an issue with regenerating energy.diffuser wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 10:58There is a lot of speculation being turned into hard evidence in here.Badger wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 10:45I have yet to see any evidence this is a gearbox issue. Given the official statements from Honda and the reporting about Newey it seems like this is a hybrid systems issue. That doesn't absolve Aston Martin completely though, if they weren't so late with their car they would have had way more time to sort these issues. The chassis also doesn't look particularly good on track, regardless of any power deficit.
Wasn't Honda's most important jump the one it made with the 2021 engine? Unless Ben Hodgkinson and RBPT can time travel they would have had precisely 0 to to with that.Leon Kennedy wrote: ↑24 Feb 2026, 00:24Theoretically yes, but practically, in my opinion, no. He joined RBPT on April 23, 2021, and finished gardening in May 2022. But yes, don't you think he still contributed?diffuser wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 20:42Bill, be nice .....Bill wrote: ↑23 Feb 2026, 20:12
You are an idiot redbull powertrain program didnt exist to develop the Hondapowerunit.honda announced that 2021 will be there last year in f1 so they deployed a powerunit that was earmarked for 2022 in 2021 their last major upgrades and won the championship. Redbull started their own program because Honda was leaving f1 not help them. By the time redbull has there own team and buildings max was already a two time championship and pu were long frozen.
Ben Hodgkinson joined RBPT in May 2022. RBR had already won 4 of the first 6 race before Ben had his first cup of coffee or tea at RBPT.
energy/ harvesting by race 7 if possible for Aston Martin to have any chance of finishing the season above 10th in the constructors title.