2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[shingles]

This is without exaggeration becoming worse than 2015. How is that even possible? TWICE! (Or thrice if you want to add 2017).

If you remember the 1994 CART/Indy situation with the HRX V8, well, this is the carbon copy of that situation.

That iron block V8 was also not able to keep its internal components placed in the particular housing called "racing engine silhouette wrap" because in its early childhood it was fascinated by hand grenades, therefore it tried to emulate them continuously...

The Honda engineers then picked up every little shards of metal from the track surface to "prevent other manufacturers to acquire the KNOWLEDGE" of that engine. No one ever wanted to be in a 1000 mile radius of that s#itty V8...

Then came 1995 with the HRH and the first wins, and from 1996 Honda conquered the US soil.

There is a philosophy of Honda called Success From Failure. Dunno... For me failure means "development prototype". And when something is finished and ready then it belongs to the racetrack. But not sooner. And it's like a swarm of hungry mosquitoes follows Honda. Where are the healthy human decisions?

It seems that Honda is the only racing engine constructor who simply can not comprehend that you should ONLY go to a duel when you have working weapons. The opponent brings a pistol, Honda brings a piece of iron to hammer & saw & bore something distantly reminiscent of a firearm (later at least a knife, even later a needle), but in the heat of the duel, the motions are clumsy, the blows of the hammer are weak and nothing comes out that we can can call victorious.

In this kind of situation the company even calls its fans to "come, watch us!" and keeps wondering that the fanbase (with some purchasing power, mind you) can not imagine that this company was able to believe to win that duel with a nonfunctional piece of metal...

Then the disgraced company starts to file another piece of metal - with broken arms, one eye, amputated legs and collapsed lungs - because of the opponent's working pistol - and something magical emerges: a masterful weapon which is feared in the whole world. But why they can not spare the ill-/mis-/dis-/non-/un-parts of the equation?

Somehow this major suckage is defining Honda. Or it IS Honda, dunno. But if I were in their place, I'd look for truly detailed self-reflections from my past to learn from it because I wouldn't want to repeat the re-learning phases. They only losing time, money, efforts, resources and most importantly, face value. Fanbase. Sales. Survival. If they self-ID themselves with constant patching, rebuilding, their choice. But no smart kid grabs a glowing red piece of metal twice with bare hands... Even when they hastily try to fabricate a weapon from it...

Let's not forget that Newey requested Honda to make changes tot he PU package after he came on board and Honda had to redesign major pieces. So, yes ALL Hondas fault. They are under performing, they admitted as much. But for so many to simply ignore other circumstance is disingenuous.

[Waz]

This is without exaggeration becoming worse than 2015. How is that even possible? TWICE! (Or thrice if you want to add 2017).

If you remember the 1994 CART/Indy situation with the HRX V8, well, this is the carbon copy of that situation.

That iron block V8 was also not able to keep its internal components placed in the particular housing called "racing engine silhouette wrap" because in its early childhood it was fascinated by hand grenades, therefore it tried to emulate them continuously...

The Honda engineers then picked up every little shards of metal from the track surface to "prevent other manufacturers to acquire the KNOWLEDGE" of that engine. No one ever wanted to be in a 1000 mile radius of that s#itty V8...

Then came 1995 with the HRH and the first wins, and from 1996 Honda conquered the US soil.

There is a philosophy of Honda called Success From Failure. Dunno... For me failure means "development prototype". And when something is finished and ready then it belongs to the racetrack. But not sooner. And it's like a swarm of hungry mosquitoes follows Honda. Where are the healthy human decisions?

It seems that Honda is the only racing engine constructor who simply can not comprehend that you should ONLY go to a duel when you have working weapons. The opponent brings a pistol, Honda brings a piece of iron to hammer & saw & bore something distantly reminiscent of a firearm (later at least a knife, even later a needle), but in the heat of the duel, the motions are clumsy, the blows of the hammer are weak and nothing comes out that we can can call victorious.

In this kind of situation the company even calls its fans to "come, watch us!" and keeps wondering that the fanbase (with some purchasing power, mind you) can not imagine that this company was able to believe to win that duel with a nonfunctional piece of metal...

Then the disgraced company starts to file another piece of metal - with broken arms, one eye, amputated legs and collapsed lungs - because of the opponent's working pistol - and something magical emerges: a masterful weapon which is feared in the whole world. But why they can not spare the ill-/mis-/dis-/non-/un-parts of the equation?

Somehow this major suckage is defining Honda. Or it IS Honda, dunno. But if I were in their place, I'd look for truly detailed self-reflections from my past to learn from it because I wouldn't want to repeat the re-learning phases. They only losing time, money, efforts, resources and most importantly, face value. Fanbase. Sales. Survival. If they self-ID themselves with constant patching, rebuilding, their choice. But no smart kid grabs a glowing red piece of metal twice with bare hands... Even when they hastily try to fabricate a weapon from it...

Let's not forget that Newey requested Honda to make changes tot he PU package after he came on board and Honda had to redesign major pieces. So, yes ALL Hondas fault. They are under performing, they admitted as much. But for so many to simply ignore other circumstance is disingenuous.

Do you have a source for that information about requesting changes to the PU from Newey?

I keep seeing people repeating this, but haven't yet seen any evidence of it being true.

[Emag]

Just had the chance to read over the latest reports on the whole Aston-Honda situation and I have got to say this is incredibly embarrassing for both parties. It's embarrassing for Honda, because they tried to get back into the game while having lost 70% of the staff that made them successful in the previous era, with seemingly very little effort put to offset that. It's embarrassing for Aston because they claim they only found out about Honda's lack of resources in the project back in November only.

How do you sign multi million dollar deals without inspecting the facilities which will deliver the product beforehand?

The fact that they tried to push this thing to the limits as well, with Honda accepting constraints for the chassis while knowing full well how handicapped they were in the development of this PU is also quite strange. But in any case, what surprises me the most, is that even when you consider all these things it just doesn't make sense for it to be this bad honestly. By all intents and purposes, Honda is one of the giants in the automotive industry in Japan. They clearly showed they can deliver with the right environment/investment balance. I don't understand how they can mess it up so badly. It's not that they're underpowered, the PU just doesn't work as it's supposed to for this regulation set. The deployment is weak, the vibrations are shaking the batteries apart and the ICE itself cannot consistently provide higher revs in the longer gears. On top of that, even though they're the only provider together with Audi that needs spare parts for a single team, they seem to be running out of them. They ran out in testing already. How?

The whole thing is a total mess, it's not just one or two problems.

It's impressive for all the wrong reasons, that they've managed to have outdone their 2015 debut.

Anyway, I think this thread has seen enough (deserved imo) negativity in these last couple of weeks, so I am not going to double down beyond this comment. The situation is quite clearly a disaster. In my opinion, this is a complete throwaway of a season. There's no way they salvage anything meaningful in terms of results out of this season. Especially not with the budget cap.

But I would be happy to be proven wrong though.

[avantman]

The source is Honda itself, google this:
Adrian Newey forced Honda to overhaul their 2026 power unit vision when he joined Aston Martin last year, according to the Japanese manufacturer.

The way Newey conducts himself as a TP is absolutely shocking. Dude’s ego seem to be 10 times bigger than I could ever imagine.

[AR3-GP]

@AlbertFabrega
on the situation at Aston Martin. #F1xESPN “The project is in a very bad situation. I find it hard to believe it can be fixed in the short term.” “There won’t be any magic solutions. It’s not just the power unit. The wind tunnel just isn’t working properly.”

[avantman]

But how convenient it is to put all the blame on Honda and Honda alone, isn’t it? Most important thing Nobody can touch Newey, he can do no wrong.

[gnocchiF1]

The source is Honda itself, google this:
Adrian Newey forced Honda to overhaul their 2026 power unit vision when he joined Aston Martin last year, according to the Japanese manufacturer.

The way Newey conducts himself as a TP is absolutely shocking. Dude’s ego seem to be 10 times bigger than I could ever imagine.

If a partner ask you to change your plan, you accept it and then completely fail, you are the only responsible for it. Project management, especially in engineering, means being able to communicate the risk, the limitations of your team, the delays, the shortcoming beforehand.

This is the second time Honda accept to develop for a seemingly tight packaging only to show up with a weak and unreliable engine. There is clearly a cultural problem in that team, that will say yes to every of your requirement only to fail at almost all of them when the deadline comes.

[shingles]

If you remember the 1994 CART/Indy situation with the HRX V8, well, this is the carbon copy of that situation.

That iron block V8 was also not able to keep its internal components placed in the particular housing called "racing engine silhouette wrap" because in its early childhood it was fascinated by hand grenades, therefore it tried to emulate them continuously...

The Honda engineers then picked up every little shards of metal from the track surface to "prevent other manufacturers to acquire the KNOWLEDGE" of that engine. No one ever wanted to be in a 1000 mile radius of that s#itty V8...

Then came 1995 with the HRH and the first wins, and from 1996 Honda conquered the US soil.

There is a philosophy of Honda called Success From Failure. Dunno... For me failure means "development prototype". And when something is finished and ready then it belongs to the racetrack. But not sooner. And it's like a swarm of hungry mosquitoes follows Honda. Where are the healthy human decisions?

It seems that Honda is the only racing engine constructor who simply can not comprehend that you should ONLY go to a duel when you have working weapons. The opponent brings a pistol, Honda brings a piece of iron to hammer & saw & bore something distantly reminiscent of a firearm (later at least a knife, even later a needle), but in the heat of the duel, the motions are clumsy, the blows of the hammer are weak and nothing comes out that we can can call victorious.

In this kind of situation the company even calls its fans to "come, watch us!" and keeps wondering that the fanbase (with some purchasing power, mind you) can not imagine that this company was able to believe to win that duel with a nonfunctional piece of metal...

Then the disgraced company starts to file another piece of metal - with broken arms, one eye, amputated legs and collapsed lungs - because of the opponent's working pistol - and something magical emerges: a masterful weapon which is feared in the whole world. But why they can not spare the ill-/mis-/dis-/non-/un-parts of the equation?

Somehow this major suckage is defining Honda. Or it IS Honda, dunno. But if I were in their place, I'd look for truly detailed self-reflections from my past to learn from it because I wouldn't want to repeat the re-learning phases. They only losing time, money, efforts, resources and most importantly, face value. Fanbase. Sales. Survival. If they self-ID themselves with constant patching, rebuilding, their choice. But no smart kid grabs a glowing red piece of metal twice with bare hands... Even when they hastily try to fabricate a weapon from it...

Let's not forget that Newey requested Honda to make changes tot he PU package after he came on board and Honda had to redesign major pieces. So, yes ALL Hondas fault. They are under performing, they admitted as much. But for so many to simply ignore other circumstance is disingenuous.

Do you have a source for that information about requesting changes to the PU from Newey?

I keep seeing people repeating this, but haven't yet seen any evidence of it being true.

https://thejudge13.com/2026/02/27/japan ... struggles/

I believe the reality of the situation is in between all Honda's fault and all Team's fault. This stuff happens a lot outside of racing... last minute changes get requested, people should have said no, but didn't, them project gets complicated. What should be done is "how do we fix it"... but there's a lot of finger pointing, it it won't help.

[AR3-GP]

But how convenient it is to put all the blame on Honda and Honda alone, isn’t it? Most important thing Nobody can touch Newey, he can do no wrong.

That's also part of what is happening. The AMR side has problems but no one is talking about that...convenient.

[diffuser]

The source is Honda itself, google this:
Adrian Newey forced Honda to overhaul their 2026 power unit vision when he joined Aston Martin last year, according to the Japanese manufacturer.

The way Newey conducts himself as a TP is absolutely shocking. Dude’s ego seem to be 10 times bigger than I could ever imagine.

Newey asked Honda to change how the PU integrated with chassis and auxiliary devices. The actual ICE wasn't changed. So it wasn't as big a deal as you make it sound.

[shingles]

The source is Honda itself, google this:
Adrian Newey forced Honda to overhaul their 2026 power unit vision when he joined Aston Martin last year, according to the Japanese manufacturer.

The way Newey conducts himself as a TP is absolutely shocking. Dude’s ego seem to be 10 times bigger than I could ever imagine.

If a partner ask you to change your plan, you accept it and then completely fail, you are the only responsible for it. Project management, especially in engineering, means being able to communicate the risk, the limitations of your team, the delays, the shortcoming beforehand.

This is the second time Honda accept to develop for a seemingly tight packaging only to show up with a weak and unreliable engine. There is clearly a cultural problem in that team, that will say yes to every of your requirement only to fail at almost all of them when the deadline comes.

I agree 100%! But, what if you are not allowed to?

There IS a cultural element... it is engrained in Japanese culture (and most Asian) to get alone.. if the team asks, you try to do it (and if Newey asks... better not say no!). When you do business with a different culture, you must factor this in. Why was RBR successful... somehow they understood this and gave Honda the room they need. Why Newey doesn't understand this is more puzzling. He was there!!! He should have been watching how it was going.

[avantman]

The source is Honda itself, google this:
Adrian Newey forced Honda to overhaul their 2026 power unit vision when he joined Aston Martin last year, according to the Japanese manufacturer.

The way Newey conducts himself as a TP is absolutely shocking. Dude’s ego seem to be 10 times bigger than I could ever imagine.

Newey asked Honda to change how the PU integrated with chassis. Not the actual ICE.

Of course, what would Newey know about ICE ?
Truth is nobody atm knows what is the real source or better to say cause of those abnormal vibrations. Why nobody even assumes it can come from the chassis, integration? It’s clear there are no abnormal vibrations when they run the PU on the testing bench.
Neeey said ICE is lacking power, let’s not question that, but that is not their main issue currently, it’s vibrations.

[shingles]

The source is Honda itself, google this:
Adrian Newey forced Honda to overhaul their 2026 power unit vision when he joined Aston Martin last year, according to the Japanese manufacturer.

The way Newey conducts himself as a TP is absolutely shocking. Dude’s ego seem to be 10 times bigger than I could ever imagine.

Newey asked Honda to change how the PU integrated with chassis and auxiliary devices. The actual ICE wasn't changed. So it wasn't as big a deal as you make it sound.

Clearly it's a big deal... how the engine is mounted to the car and now there's vibration issue, then you didn't have gearbox or car to test it with till late in the game. maybe each individual change is not a big deal, but they add up.

[FNTC]

Blaming Newey is just silly. If Honda were competent they would refuse to repackage if they could not do it, they obviously thought they could. Also Cowell is there, he should be the engine guru.

[Badger]

Blaming Newey is just silly. If Honda were competent they would refuse to repackage if they could not do it, they obviously thought they could. Also Cowell is there, he should be the engine guru.

Perhaps, but equally you could say it is the job of Newey to know the strengths and weaknesses of his PU partner. Honda has infamously overextended themselves in the past at the behest of their chassis partner, Newey should have taken that into account before he demanded big changes so close to debut.