2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[ME4ME]

What amazes me is how this thread has so many comments and is still going. The season is dead. Both team and PU supplier screwed up. Nothing more to come and nothing to discuss untill 2027. Only the blame game to play.

[TyreSlip]

What amazes me is how this thread has so many comments and is still going. The season is dead. Both team and PU supplier screwed up. Nothing more to come and nothing to discuss untill 2027. Only the blame game to play.

There are only a few people here who like ranting and playing the blame game. I would say most of us want to see this project succeed.

Nothing more to discuss? There are plenty of things to discuss.

1. When Aston Martin sheds weight in Baku, how close will the chassis match the frontrunners in corners?

2. Will Alonso sign a multi-year deal or will he retire?

3. Orihara said they will focus on performance now with the spec 2 engine. Is there some power still to be extracted that will help with straight-line speed?

4. Can Aston Martin negotiate more concessions from other manufacturers that will allow Honda to close the gap at a faster rate?

[Petebass]

IMO;
1. It will obviously improve, but engine driveability also affects cornering speed, and they are still having issues with it.
2. I think so.
3. They will try to push and the same or new problems will arise; I don't expect much.
4. The two strongest have said yes (Mer and RB), and Fer and Aud will probably say yes as long as they get some benefit as well to be able to catch up. I think Honda wants more time to be able to homologate the 2027 engine, but it's (my) pure speculation.

[diffuser]

What amazes me is how this thread has so many comments and is still going. The season is dead. Both team and PU supplier screwed up. Nothing more to come and nothing to discuss untill 2027. Only the blame game to play.

It's kind of the other way around. The season started in Hungary. Before that it was just preseason for the AMR26. We finally have some real racing.

[diffuser]

Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur has underscored the vast complexity of closing the Scuderia’s top-speed gap to front-runner Mercedes, cautioning that power unit development requires a far longer timeline than chassis upgrades.

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/09/ ... d-deficit/

Yeah, that's why it doesn't really make sense for Honda to come out with another Update in 2026. If they did, it would not advance the 2027 PU any further. At best, the 2027 PU, would be the same as if the didn't have a 2nd upgrade in 2026. There is an outside chance that a 2nd update would steal PU resources and have a negative affect on R&D progress.

[mzso]

Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur has underscored the vast complexity of closing the Scuderia’s top-speed gap to front-runner Mercedes, cautioning that power unit development requires a far longer timeline than chassis upgrades.

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/09/ ... d-deficit/

The "long lead time of parts" doesn't really explain it. How long and why? (milling gears and boring cylinders takes weeks or something?)
If the supply chain is slow, why isn't everything in-house already?

[Farnborough]

Ferrari Team Principal Fred Vasseur has underscored the vast complexity of closing the Scuderia’s top-speed gap to front-runner Mercedes, cautioning that power unit development requires a far longer timeline than chassis upgrades.

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/09/ ... d-deficit/

The "long lead time of parts" doesn't really explain it. How long and why? (milling gears and boring cylinders takes weeks or something?)
If the supply chain is slow, why isn't everything in-house already?

Not so much the manufacturing, for smaller individual components. Much more of exactly what they want to change, how they arrive at that decision point, how it's tested and verified, how it fits with other pre-existing design (both performance and physical) all before its committed to final production.

R & D of intricate performance critical components is always like this. Shortcomings recognised, thought process to re define that functionality, proof in design capabilities, material and rules constraints, then reality of assessment.

Piece of cake, ain't it

[diffuser]

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2026/09/ ... d-deficit/

The "long lead time of parts" doesn't really explain it. How long and why? (milling gears and boring cylinders takes weeks or something?)
If the supply chain is slow, why isn't everything in-house already?

Not so much the manufacturing, for smaller individual components. Much more of exactly what they want to change, how they arrive at that decision point, how it's tested and verified, how it fits with other pre-existing design (both performance and physical) all before its committed to final production.

R & D of intricate performance critical components is always like this. Shortcomings recognised, thought process to re define that functionality, proof in design capabilities, material and rules constraints, then reality of assessment.

Piece of cake, ain't it

Wonder if they have a way to measure/visualize fuel flow aerodynamics from air intake/fuel injection to exhaust?

[Farnborough]

The "long lead time of parts" doesn't really explain it. How long and why? (milling gears and boring cylinders takes weeks or something?)
If the supply chain is slow, why isn't everything in-house already?

Not so much the manufacturing, for smaller individual components. Much more of exactly what they want to change, how they arrive at that decision point, how it's tested and verified, how it fits with other pre-existing design (both performance and physical) all before its committed to final production.

R & D of intricate performance critical components is always like this. Shortcomings recognised, thought process to re define that functionality, proof in design capabilities, material and rules constraints, then reality of assessment.

Piece of cake, ain't it

Wonder if they have a way to measure/visualize fuel flow aerodynamics from air intake/fuel injection to exhaust?

I don't know the answer to that, or if it would be useful.

They have made reasonable statement though about the primary issue they're struggling with, combustion event stability/repeatability/consistency. Which does lend credence to isopano6 views about fuel supplied and it's effectiveness.

The FIA fuel regulation is a control/limitation and not a "specification" as such. What's actually in the mix is of course vital to the above failings.

Also, Honda are without secondary team (Audi too) Aramco the same, there's no comparator available to understand where they are.

As to development of ICE, if they knew for certain what was wrong, they'd probably not made this one in the first place, and we wouldn't be having this thread direction.

This comes back to that ssme question, as to exactly what is not performing, then comes the further part as to what needs to change, and how it has to change.

[zoroastar]

It's cause it measures power, not recharge or efficiency. The electrical power when deployed at max is the same for all manufactures. It seems that Merc is more efficient at deploying energy or can recharge more. This leads to them being able to deploy the electricity for longer amount of time.

• It's not like Merc is using the ADOU this year. So it will only make a difference next year.

• If you look at The teams that have used their ADOU upgrades this year for performance gains, you can barely tell the difference.

• All the other teams that got ADUO have like double up to 4 times extra resource than Merc is getting.so I don'texpect to be a huge improvement

• We also don't know if the electrical edge that Merc has is coming from software. Everyone can work on software

I mean RBPT might have something to complain about but nobody on the ADOU list does.

yeah theyve made the ability to upgrade, or measure the true effectiveness of the power units so complicated that its redundant. if mercedes needed to redesign the PU they would. but they dont need to. theyre so far ahead of anyone else, yet somehow were granted upgrades lol. its not mercedes fault they are so much better than anyone else. but honestly, did anybody think it would be any different? my point is, these power units suck. there is enough technology in f1 without needing to get so complicated with the engines that a company like honda cant even wrap their brains around it. if you started on the back foot, youre probably doomed for several years. its just stupid.

Is not suck at all! Is just the first year with missed races! We said the same at ground effect cars when dolphin effect was in every comments. Slowly disappeared and they get faster and faster than ever. Here will be the same ,better turbo better engine, deploy regen ,recharge speed and everything. I think after 1,5 year they will be 2-3 second faster. What i wpuld change is just a little bigger battery like instead of 4 a 5-6 MJ.

dude, the drivers arent even in control of their passing power anymore. ai is choosing when its best to pass or sit back and follow, because that is the fastest way theyve found to get around the track 60 or 70 times per race. the only reason thats probably going to change is because drivers are saying that they dont feel like theyre racing anymore. that goes against everything that racing is about. if it keeps going in that direction we may as well take the driver out of the loop and watch high dollar RC cars race. the good thing is that its gonna cause them to go back to simpler better "race engines" instead of some over complicated techno-bate monstrocity. my opinion of course

[AR3-GP]

Also, Honda are without secondary team (Audi too) Aramco the same, there's no comparator available to understand where they are.

Surely it's quite trivial to hide an F1 engine in the mountains of japan.

[Farnborough]

Also, Honda are without secondary team (Audi too) Aramco the same, there's no comparator available to understand where they are.

Surely it's quite trivial to hide an F1 engine in the mountains of japan.

Perhaps they'll find some NOS barrels of last years fuel they've forgotten about round behind the dyno cells

[peewon]

There are only a few people here who like ranting and playing the blame game. I would say most of us want to see this project succeed.

Nothing more to discuss? There are plenty of things to discuss.

1. When Aston Martin sheds weight in Baku, how close will the chassis match the frontrunners in corners?

2. Will Alonso sign a multi-year deal or will he retire?

3. Orihara said they will focus on performance now with the spec 2 engine. Is there some power still to be extracted that will help with straight-line speed?

4. Can Aston Martin negotiate more concessions from other manufacturers that will allow Honda to close the gap at a faster rate?

1. Over a season, it doesnt even matter as much coz the cars are only going as fast through the corners as the power management system deems optimal, not even close to flat out. On some tracks like Hungary, it matters and a little bit here and there as well.

2. If AM stick with Honda, I dont see the point of him coming back. They will not win a race next year and anything less than that doesnt seem like should be worth his time. When your competitors are willing to give you concessions outside the rules just so they can preserve the ruleset, means you have no shot of competing.

3. If they do, maybe they'll score points in a couple of races this season.

4.I dont think this ruleset will last more than 4 years. I think its deeply flawed and unpopular with a lot of parties. From fans, to certain teams and drivers and even some in the FIA. Maybe Mercedes will win 3 or 4 titles and it will quench their thirst so they'll agree to bigger changes after that. I dont see Honda winning anything in that time. People think if they just catch up on the ICE, they should be good but theres a lot more than that to this ruleset and Id be shocked if they are ever genuine contendors, even in individual races under this ruleset.

[diffuser]

Also, Honda are without secondary team (Audi too) Aramco the same, there's no comparator available to understand where they are.

Surely it's quite trivial to hide an F1 engine in the mountains of japan.

Well that's the reason why this room has so many entries. No secondary team.

[diffuser]

Not so much the manufacturing, for smaller individual components. Much more of exactly what they want to change, how they arrive at that decision point, how it's tested and verified, how it fits with other pre-existing design (both performance and physical) all before its committed to final production.

R & D of intricate performance critical components is always like this. Shortcomings recognised, thought process to re define that functionality, proof in design capabilities, material and rules constraints, then reality of assessment.

Piece of cake, ain't it

Wonder if they have a way to measure/visualize fuel flow aerodynamics from air intake/fuel injection to exhaust?

I don't know the answer to that, or if it would be useful.

They have made reasonable statement though about the primary issue they're struggling with, combustion event stability/repeatability/consistency. Which does lend credence to isopano6 views about fuel supplied and it's effectiveness.

The FIA fuel regulation is a control/limitation and not a "specification" as such. What's actually in the mix is of course vital to the above failings.

Also, Honda are without secondary team (Audi too) Aramco the same, there's no comparator available to understand where they are.

As to development of ICE, if they knew for certain what was wrong, they'd probably not made this one in the first place, and we wouldn't be having this thread direction.

This comes back to that ssme question, as to exactly what is not performing, then comes the further part as to what needs to change, and how it has to change.

It frustrates me when people simplify the matter by stating, 'It's the fuel'. How can anyone make such a claim? If someone were to say that Honda and Aramco are collaborating to optimize combustion efficiency, I could accept that. It is akin to two individuals observing a glass filled to the midpoint: one views it as half full, while the other sees it as half empty. 2 sides of the same coin, one side is the fuel, the other is the ICE manufacturer tring to control the fuel and the coin is combustion.