2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[Badger]

Actually hilarious how Fernando decided to just pull into the pits after he was tired of getting re-passed by Bottas on the straight. The driver just decides no more sponsorship visibility, no more data gathering for Honda or the team, pack it up and go home because Fernando has called it a day. Why even go racing at that point? Why not just save the money and spend it on next year...

[etusch]

I find this 'chassis is really good, ahead of Audi, equal to Alpine' claim to be preposterous. Please submit proof in the form of data or video or something to support this claim, otherwise please dont make such ridiculous 'I have a feeling' claims. With such a poor PU, the chassis is not even getting pushed to its operational limits. There is no way to make a judgement about the chassis or for the engineers to expose it's limitations and solve them, without the chassis being exposed to lateral/longitudinal loads that other cars on the grid are getting subjected to.

If the engine is weak, you simply can't push the chassis to its limits? In other words, does the PU fail to give ability to car enter a corner at 250 or 300 km/h—speeds ? A lack of top speed manifests itself before the corner, not during it. If the chassis is truly that good, the car should be able to rank among the best in the corners, falling behind only on the straights. This is nonsense.

[mzso]

This season is a growing pains year.

The "growing pains" was 2015-17. Experienced middle-aged people don't have growing pains.

If you're a Honda fan, just wait and see how they solve the combustion issues and come up with the solution the Honda way. This season is a growing pains year. RedBull went through it with Toro Rosso but stuck with it and had patience. McLaren did eventually have 1 driver's championship/2 constructors compared to 4 and 3 for RedBull and 21/22 wins in a single season besting the 11/12 of McLaren with both being Honda engines. The motivation is there but it isn't easy, which is what makes success even sweeter. People sour now have unrealistic expectations of the challenge and the juggernaut Mercedes is. Patience is a virtue. AMR wasn't a top team last year with Merc power either. Time will tell what this team is made of.

I hope you are right. I hope this is Toro Rosso and not the pain from the years before at McLaren.

It pretty much seems like 2016 now, after the ADUO.

[KimiRai]

Actually hilarious how Fernando decided to just pull into the pits after he was tired of getting re-passed by Bottas on the straight. The driver just decides no more sponsorship visibility, no more data gathering for Honda or the team, pack it up and go home because Fernando has called it a day. Why even go racing at that point? Why not just save the money and spend it on next year...

How about we look at some data first, instead of randomly accusing Alonso of wrongdoing without any proof whatsoever. That would be great. Also would be great if those who previously complained of subjective and biased posts would say the same towards this. Of course that didn't happen.



I have no idea why Honda says there wasn’t a problem. They also said that Spec 2 had met all expectations, and we now know full well that wasn’t the case (and sacking the team leader is further proof of that), so whatever

If the engine is weak, you simply can't push the chassis to its limits? In other words, does the PU fail to give ability to car enter a corner at 250 or 300 km/h—speeds ?

Yes if you need to compensate the loss on the straights by sacrificing deployment elsewhere. The chassis is not up to par at all and needs much improvement. Both can be true at the same time.

Anyways this is pointless. See you all in February.

[diffuser]

Actually hilarious how Fernando decided to just pull into the pits after he was tired of getting re-passed by Bottas on the straight. The driver just decides no more sponsorship visibility, no more data gathering for Honda or the team, pack it up and go home because Fernando has called it a day. Why even go racing at that point? Why not just save the money and spend it on next year...

He just doesn't think there is any else to learn from lapping so much slower than everybody else.

[Rikrikrik]

Honda underestimated the importance of the combustion side of the engine in the 2026 project, and I think they fell into the same kind of “logic” that had made them champions before. But things have changed now, so I don’t think we can judge the Spec 2 too harshly. It seems to have been much more of a test to validate the concept they intend to use for the new engine, and, despite how little performance it brought, they did confirm that the direction they’re taking is the right one.

I want to hold on to the idea that the Spec 2 was nothing more than a proof of concept for something much better in 2027. As bad as the current situation is, they seem to know where the problem is. They’ve repeatedly said that combustion is the main weakness, so they know what needs to be fixed and should be able to attack that area much more aggressively for 2027.

That’s what I’m hoping for: that the engine gets plenty of mileage during pre-season testing and development, and that by the time we get to Bahrain in 2027, it’s already somewhere around the level of Audi or Ferrari. It’s hard to trust Honda after all this, but I want to believe that, as horrible as the situation looks right now, it’s still much easier to recover quickly from this than it was the first time around at McLaren.

I’m trying to stay optimistic that this is a fundamentally different situation from 2016: back then, they didn’t really know how to improve the engine. This time, they’ve identified the problem, validated the direction with Spec 2, and now they can focus heavily on fixing it for 2027.