2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[Xyz22]

It's not a claim. It was said by Honda. What is hilarious about that?

So you think they remade the entire engine in just 8-9 months?

It was never said that Honda changed the combustion engine. It was said that the layout of the hybrid system was changed.

This is a little bit of semantics. When you say "engine" I think "PU". In any case:

"Since Mr. Newey joined Aston Martin in March 2025, almost everything we had been doing changed. Of course, we couldn't change the engine structure, but everything else changed, including how to install the peripheral equipment and the body."

For example, at the “2026 Honda × Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team New Partnership Launch Presentation” held in Tokyo on January 20, Tsunoda explained the reason for the two-tier battery (energy store/ES) as follows: "As we progressed with the development of the new car, the team requested, 'We want it to be as compact as possible. We wanted to make it as short as possible (in overall length),' so we went with a two-tier configuration." This too was a request from Newey.

“Mr. Newey asked, ‘Could we do it this way?’ For us, it was a time-sensitive deadline, but...”

https://www.as-web.jp/f1/1293808?all

Ah yeah sorry i was referring to insane claims (by fake journalists, etc.) that Honda redid the entire engine, which is a completely different thing.

[ericsonnek]

Honda MGU-K

https://global.honda/en/tech/motorsport ... U-H_MGU-K/

[diffuser]

So you think they remade the entire engine in just 8-9 months?

It was never said that Honda changed the combustion engine. It was said that the layout of the hybrid system was changed.

This is a little bit of semantics. When you say "engine" I think "PU". In any case:

"Since Mr. Newey joined Aston Martin in March 2025, almost everything we had been doing changed. Of course, we couldn't change the engine structure, but everything else changed, including how to install the peripheral equipment and the body."

For example, at the “2026 Honda × Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team New Partnership Launch Presentation” held in Tokyo on January 20, Tsunoda explained the reason for the two-tier battery (energy store/ES) as follows: "As we progressed with the development of the new car, the team requested, 'We want it to be as compact as possible. We wanted to make it as short as possible (in overall length),' so we went with a two-tier configuration." This too was a request from Newey.

“Mr. Newey asked, ‘Could we do it this way?’ For us, it was a time-sensitive deadline, but...”

https://www.as-web.jp/f1/1293808?all

Ah yeah sorry i was referring to insane claims (by fake journalists, etc.) that Honda redid the entire engine, which is a completely different thing.

It is what it is. If Newey would have joined earlier, the request would have gotten to Honda earlier. He couldn't, he joined late, sees that the car can be improved by doing making "said change", do we ignore what he think's will make the car perform better ? We'll see how it turns out. All these numbers about them not being up to par come out of nowhere...We'll only know for sure when they're fully running without the counter measures. We'll see when we'll see.

Loved the way it launched.... Although they might have been light on fuel. All the other cars were fueled for a whole race, since Aston wasn't expected to finish the race, they might not have been fueled to the same extent. At the very least that's an unknown.

[SSJ4]

wonder how hard they'll push the engine in china. considering its a sprint weekend. then a two week break for japan then a month break considering bahrain and saudi will most likely be cancelled.

[mzso]

Of course it’s not solely an issue on Honda’s side, if any. Do people seriously think that all of a sudden Honda forgot how to build basically the same ICE of the last years?

Not only Honda memorably blundered before. Also they themselves said that they are working to fix the vibration issue.

In the last interview Watanabe even told that they’ve not observed vibrations on the bench and once everything came together with the chassis, the issues started. This speaks volumes.

I think it's just ambiguous. Wihout context it means very little. We don't know how they monted it and how they measured vibration. It was certainly not harmful for a couple of massive steel parts that held the ICE.

Higher-than-normal vibration levels were anticipated from early in the project, but design compromises, reportedly influenced by Adrian Newey's reluctance to stiffen the chassis,

Riiight... On the other hand when asked Newey said, that carbon fiber is very stiff so it transmits all the vibrations.

[Leon Kennedy]

It was never said that Honda changed the combustion engine. It was said that the layout of the hybrid system was changed.

This is a little bit of semantics. When you say "engine" I think "PU". In any case:



https://www.as-web.jp/f1/1293808?all

Ah yeah sorry i was referring to insane claims (by fake journalists, etc.) that Honda redid the entire engine, which is a completely different thing.

It is what it is. If Newey would have joined earlier, the request would have gotten to Honda earlier. He couldn't, he joined late, sees that the car can be improved by doing making "said change", do we ignore what he think's will make the car perform better ? We'll see how it turns out. All these numbers about them not being up to par come out of nowhere...We'll only know for sure when they're fully running without the counter measures. We'll see when we'll see.

Loved the way it launched.... Although they might have been light on fuel. All the other cars were fueled for a whole race, since Aston wasn't expected to finish the race, they might not have been fueled to the same extent. At the very least that's an unknown.

People who think only the engine counts, I'm sorry but they don't understand anything about F1. Just look at Mercedes customers and it's a clear example. Without AN Aston Martin would have no hope of winning, now it is very little but it is there.


"Could we do it this way?" This sums it up: it doesn't say "you must have to do it this way." So here too, there is little to discuss.

wonder how hard they'll push the engine in china. considering its a sprint weekend. then a two week break for japan then a month break considering bahrain and saudi will most likely be cancelled.

The fact that there are two races left is certainly an advantage (obviously if they were to take place it would be a good thing for other reasons outside of F1), but I wonder if they still count towards the ADUO calculation or if the actual races should count.

But yes, in Japan, in my opinion, if they manage to unleash all the power of the engine with reliability, expect some nice surprises.

[ispano6]

I still thinking they will find solutions for all thing more quickly than all people think. But, the promisses needs to be proved it. In Japan we need able to see a lot of improvement by Honda, if the same things still happen there after thoso interviews... They dont know what they doing and just play with media. Alonso's reactions this year will tell us a lot, more than any other year.

What promises? By who? No one has made promises. You're just setting yourself up for disappointment with your own assumptions that Honda don't know what they're doing. You haven't a clue. You don't know what Aramco are doing either, or what they're not doing compared to other race fuel suppliers.

[Artur Craft]

It seems to me the aero/chassis is very promising based on QLF and race. If only the engine was decent.....

[collindsilva]

Question: In Q1, Alonso was 17th, better than the Cadillac. During practice AMR was running with considerable fuel to dampen the vibrations, did they follow the same during the Quali.

[restless]

I think it's just ambiguous. Wihout context it means very little. We don't know how they monted it and how they measured vibration. It was certainly not harmful for a couple of massive steel parts that held the ICE.

In order to have such vibrations that parts are braking, they have to hit a resonance when running the combination "PU mounted on RL chassis"
- quick and dirty fix - change the totall mass(weight) of the chassis, thus move the moment of resonance
- add something to absorb vibrations
- change the engine so harmonics dont occur where chassis resonance thus increasing'em

Such thing cannot be predicted without mounting PU+RLchassis.
It will be fixed, if vibration is the single problem, relatively easy, but not cheap.

[Nikosar]

"Could we do it this way?" This sums it up: it doesn't say "you must have to do it this way." So here too, there is little to discuss.

- they try to distance themselves from assuming responsibility. AN mentioned several putting an accent on “chassis” (his job) and “PU” (Honda job). Which is not wrong but they are supposed to work as team.

The point is, even without AN’s requests, Honda’s PU would have lagged far behind the competition.

wonder how hard they'll push the engine in china. considering its a sprint weekend. then a two week break for japan then a month break considering bahrain and saudi will most likely be cancelled.

- they lack of spare batteries. I china will be another painful weekend but Honda seems to bring more countermeasures to reduce vibrations. It will be a test weekend hoping for Japan GP.

[AR3-GP]

"Could we do it this way?" This sums it up: it doesn't say "you must have to do it this way." So here too, there is little to discuss.

- they try to distance themselves from assuming responsibility. AN mentioned several putting an accent on “chassis” (his job) and “PU” (Honda job). Which is not wrong but they are supposed to work as team.

The point is, even without AN’s requests, Honda’s PU would have lagged far behind the competition.

Honda admitted they have challenges adapting their combustion technology to the 2026 combustion engine. Their rapid combustion concept doesn't work at 16:1 compression ratio, they can't run the in-cylinder pressure sensor that allowed them to use aggressive ignition timing, and the new fuel is harder to vaporize.

I think a greater perspective is needed here. It's not about blaming AMR or blaming Honda. It's about acknowledging that Honda was already having a difficult time, and it's been made more difficult by last minute changes to the power unit. In other words, people need to be patient, instead of bashing Honda.

[hasika]

https://www.as-web.jp/f1/1296569
https://www.as-web.jp/f1/1296653
HRC boss Koji Watanabe's interview after race,here is the main point.
1.The vibration was significantly reduced during Aus GP than Bahrain test.Lance said he felt the vibration level was almost half(of how he felt during Bahrain test)
2.The target is solving the vibration problem in Japan GP.
3.No PU issues in the race.Our part of race plan was doing some test because we didnt do much laps（in Bahrain test),the other reason was the team's strategy‌（to retire the car）.
4.The PU was still runing with some limition.When the vibration problem is completely‌ solved,the PU will be operating at its full capacity, then we can check the real performance of the PU and we will know which era we should improve.
5.The number of engineers in F1 project is enough now（With more engineers return to F1 project,Now the number of people in F1 project is almost same to 2018-2021 time.）.We will do some organization change to Improve development speed and collaboration with Aston Martin. I'd like to discuss it with Mr. Takeishi (Ikuo / Executive Officer and Director of Honda Racing, Head of the Four-Wheel Racing Department).

[BassVirolla]

"Could we do it this way?" This sums it up: it doesn't say "you must have to do it this way." So here too, there is little to discuss.

- they try to distance themselves from assuming responsibility. AN mentioned several putting an accent on “chassis” (his job) and “PU” (Honda job). Which is not wrong but they are supposed to work as team.

The point is, even without AN’s requests, Honda’s PU would have lagged far behind the competition.

Honda admitted they have challenges adapting their combustion technology to the 2026 combustion engine. Their rapid combustion concept doesn't work at 16:1 compression ratio, they can't run the in-cylinder pressure sensor that allowed them to use aggressive ignition timing, and the new fuel is harder to vaporize.

I think a greater perspective is needed here. It's not about blaming AMR or blaming Honda. It's about acknowledging that Honda was already having a difficult time, and it's been made more difficult by last minute changes to the power unit. In other words, people need to be patient, instead of bashing Honda.

What timeframe of patient? Ferrari WCC patient or just McLaren Honda patient?

[AR3-GP]

"Could we do it this way?" This sums it up: it doesn't say "you must have to do it this way." So here too, there is little to discuss.

- they try to distance themselves from assuming responsibility. AN mentioned several putting an accent on “chassis” (his job) and “PU” (Honda job). Which is not wrong but they are supposed to work as team.

The point is, even without AN’s requests, Honda’s PU would have lagged far behind the competition.

Honda admitted they have challenges adapting their combustion technology to the 2026 combustion engine. Their rapid combustion concept doesn't work at 16:1 compression ratio, they can't run the in-cylinder pressure sensor that allowed them to use aggressive ignition timing, and the new fuel is harder to vaporize.

I think a greater perspective is needed here. It's not about blaming AMR or blaming Honda. It's about acknowledging that Honda was already having a difficult time, and it's been made more difficult by last minute changes to the power unit. In other words, people need to be patient, instead of bashing Honda.

What timeframe of patient? Ferrari WCC patient or just McLaren Honda patient?

Formula 1 is not going anywhere, and neither are Aston Martin or Honda. I think realistically it's a 2 year timeline for Honda to get their act together and get to the level of Mercedes like they did in the previous regs. Unfortunately, that isn't going to do Fernando Alonso any favors. They could get some good results next year (podium, maybe even a win), but it's still too early to talk about being the top team.