Reading those Newey quotes about being mislead regarding only 30% of the staff remaining and the rest "new to F1", kind of made me think of that. Newey is certainly not protecting Honda by releasing all this information, wonder if AMR behind the scenes are exploring their options.
Honda is a typical Japanese company. They don't like to hire from outside. Everyone gets trained from within and they never leave the company. They are allowing Cowell and the 5 AMR engineers access to the HRD facility in Japan. It is significant departure from traditional working practices. It shows that this is really a crisis and they needed to give and take something to keep Aston Martin from pulling the plug.AtlasZX wrote: ↑06 Mar 2026, 10:56Probably they knew the situation wasn't optimal, but they expected the Honda engine to be only "underpowered" in 2026 rather than this bad.
Wonder if Honda should've have hired/bought the Renault engine department, they were working on a '26 engine until late 2024.
I wonder who did the original negotiations. Were they misled by Honda? Didn't they ask the right questions? I suspect the latter. But it is a shocking statement of Newey either way.
That is a stunning quote.
They didn't anticipate the vibration issues which have damaged many batteries during the pre-season. Normally a car can use two batteries for the entire season.
The team can be sold and contract can be nullified under mutual agreement.HondaPOD wrote: ↑06 Mar 2026, 11:08Aston Martin cannot change their engine supplier now. It's a done deal.
Supplier contracts are multi-year and FIA-approved; so no quick swaps allowed. It will be possible only find onther team like in 2018.
By the way, any change, if it's possible, requires major redesigns, which are banned by technical and sporting rules.
AMR needs to resolve "With" Honda vibration and performance issues through development.
Lost for words reading about this situation, it gets worse every day. AM, Honda... what were they thinking?