WHAT NEXT FOR ASTON MARTIN, ALONSO AND HONDA

Aston Martin has, as Fernando Alonso pointed out, found three seconds over two Formula 1 race weekends.

Alonso himself scored points for only the second time in 2026 in the Netherlands as he took the team's best finish of the season.

Plus, Honda says its new engine that arrived at Zandvoort hit its key target. Sounds promising, right?

Not entirely. Lance Stroll still says the car is a lottery to drive, and both drivers, plus team principal Adrian Newey, named the exact same problem with the engine after the race that is now a priority to fix.

The Race has spoken exclusively to Honda's F1 chief engineer Shintaro Orihara to hear the inside story of what has been done with its new engine, what's still not working, and why taking the next step could turn out to be incredibly difficult.

How good is Honda's spec 2 engine?

From Honda's perspective, there were reasons to be encouraged by the evidence of the Dutch Grand Prix as Alonso took a best result of the season in ninth.

The revised power unit didn't have any reliability problems over the weekend and Orihara was happy that "everything was working as expected" with the cooling and lubrication elements of the revised engine.

In terms of extra power, Honda was not revealing much - although it is likely to be somewhere in the range of 10-30bhp so far.

"We achieved our internal target from the dyno and then we have confirmed the same improvement trackside," said Orihara.

However, he accepted Honda is "still far away" from F1's top manufacturers and that there is one big fix that's still needed.

It’s something the drivers, Newey and even Honda itself are aligned on.

As Orihara said: "We know that there is room to improve our driveability and this remains paramount for us looking ahead to the next races."

What exactly is Honda's driveability headache?

Driveability is a pretty generic term, but The Race has learned about the specifics behind what is happening at Honda and why the drivers need more.

In simple terms, when F1 figures talk about driveability it is about the engine responding in line with what the driver requires.

The most common assumption is that this revolves around making sure that the engine delivers power in a predictable way when a driver gets on the accelerator. But it's not just that.

Driveability also counts for corner entry, too, because engine braking is a critical element of performance, so manufacturers have to carefully manage how things operate off-throttle.

Ever since F1 became a hybrid formula - first with KERS and most recently with the turbo hybrid engines - driveability has also included how the engine braking works in conjunction with the MGU-K and energy harvesting.

The new challenge is that, when the driver lifts off the throttle or brakes, the engine switches from powering the rear wheels to acting as a generator (via the MGU-K) to feed the battery.

It's a complicated process because there needs to be an incredible amount of synchronicity between the engine feeding the MGU-K, being able to have the perfect amount of engine braking through the right combustion, plus how this interacts with the brake-by-wire adjusting how much is required of the rear brake discs.

Plus you need to add on top of this the impact of downshifts from the gearbox.

To further increase the challenge, when the battery has reached 100% capacity, or has hit a charge limit for a particular corner that the team does not want to go over, then the engine has to instantly stop harvesting - which removes a big deceleration force.

This transition phase, as the engine returns to normal engine braking behaviour, needs to be carefully managed.

As Orihara revealed: "If the driver lifts off the throttle, there is engine braking, but then the MGU-K is harvesting 350kW so the operation point is almost double.

"Then the MGU-K power is decreasing, and engine torque is also decreasing, but the driver demand is 0N. To achieve 0N it is very complicated.

"It is communication between the engine, combustion, and MGU-K control. That is one of the areas we need to improve, how we organise this combination."

If any of these driveability elements are out of kilter, then it can result in the kind of issues that Alonso and Stroll have repeatedly experienced.

The engine braking may be too harsh and that creates instability, the battery may not harvest enough, the engine could push the car into understeer, or the seamless shift gearbox may reject a downshift as it does not have the synchronisation to engage a lower gear.

The difficulties of mastering all these driveability challenges have also escalated hugely with the 2026 regulations.

This is down to two factors. The first is that the increase of the battery influence to almost 50% of the power available has meant that it is even more critical to ensure that the harvesting phase is done as well as possible.

Plus, the loss of the MGU-H - which generated energy from the turbo - has robbed manufacturers of a very valuable tool that assisted with harvesting.

This is because electrical energy could previously be sent from the two MGUs - therefore bypassing the battery totally.

Achieving good driveability requires the right software configuration, plus the right combustion characteristics for the engine not to deliver power while the driver is not on the throttle.

This is something that Honda has struggled with during 2026, not only under braking but also under acceleration. As Orihara said: "Sometimes our combustion is not stable."

The change of power unit rules for this year, as well as Honda working with new fuel and lubricant suppliers, Aramco and Valvoline, means it has not been achieving all that it wants in this area.

So there are clear gains Honda can find from improving combustion on both acceleration and deceleration.

Bringing all this together, until Honda's driveability is sorted then neither it nor Aston Martin will know what the true potential of its engine is because only then will the full power be unleashed.

That is why Alonso said it was hard to judge just how much better the spec 2 engine was.

How Honda is fixing the problems

A fix for the driveability issues requires Honda improving its calibration and introducing revamped software to ensure that the internal combustion engine is doing exactly what the drivers want.

Following the first day of track running at Zandvoort, Honda used the data to work on improvements at its Sakura R&D base overnight.

A new calibration was introduced for qualifying on Saturday, and this did produce a step forward. But more is needed.

Orihara admitted this was "still not enough for the drivers" but it has at least confirmed progress is happening, and further work will be done to make gains for the Italian GP.

There will be no miracle solution that solves all of the driveability headaches instantly, but it will be a case of Honda working hard on the dynos during this fortnight between Zandvoort and Monza.

It then has to continue chipping away at its understanding as it faces tracks with different corners, different energy and engine braking demands, and different surfaces.

Alonso felt there are "a couple of tenths" to come if Honda optimises the package which, based on when things went right at Zandvoort, will push Aston Martin right into regular points contention - as his ninth-place finish in the Netherlands, though well-executed, still owed plenty to an opportunistic one-stop strategy.

However, it is fair to say the overall performance of the Aston Martin-Honda upgrades has thrown up some encouraging results.

Having started the year 3.1% off the benchmark pace in Q1, Aston Martin slumped to more than 4% adrift at Barcelona, the Red Bull Ring and Silverstone, as rivals developed their cars.

It finally closed the deficit in Hungary, reaching Q2 with its upgraded chassis, but it was never closer to the front than at Zandvoort last weekend when the new Honda engine arrived.

Even with Aston Martin messing up its execution in qualifying when Alonso got stuck behind Esteban Ocon on his outlap, his Q1 time was just 1.4% adrift of the benchmark.

Highlighting that Q1 pacesetter, McLaren's Oscar Piastri, was only 1.3 seconds ahead, and referencing the many times Aston Martin had been more than four seconds off, Alonso said: "We improved three seconds in two races. This is amazing."

If Honda's progress does bear fruit (although there still may be struggles at power-sensitive tracks such as Monza) this will almost certainly be enough to convince Alonso to stay as he weighs up his future.

Right now, we still don't know if he actually wants to stay in this team, or in F1, in 2027.

Alonso was seen deep in conversation with team principal Newey in the Aston Martin motorhome on Sunday night after the Dutch GP, and will likely be holding talks with owner Lawrence Stroll in this gap to discuss his future.

There is a lot riding on Honda making gains - both the team's results this year and what Alonso does next.

- JON NOBLE

MOTORGP: TECH3 KTM CONFIRM LUCA MARINI SIGNING FOR 2027 SEASON

 

Luca Marini will swap red for orange in MotoGP next season

Luca Marini will join Tech3 KTM for the 2027 MotoGP season after spending the last three years with Honda.

The Italian has played an integral role in Honda’s MotoGP project since he joined them in 2024, proving to be a valuable asset on the technical development of the RC213V, whilst being a trustworthy, consistent rider on the track.

Marini takes the spot vacated by Enea Bastianini, who confirmed earlier this week that he would be racing for Trackhouse Aprilia next year alongside Raul Fernandez.

Luca Marini onboard the Honda RC213V during the 2026 MotoGP season

“Luca is a rider we have been watching closely, and we are very pleased to welcome him to Tech3 from 2027,” team CEO Guenther Steiner said. “He brings a huge amount of experience, but also the right mentality and approach for what we are building here.

“2027 will be a big reset for MotoGP, so having a rider who can contribute to our progress in this new era will be important.”

2027 will be Marini’s seventh season in the premier class. The 29-year-old spent the first half of his MotoGP career with Ducati power, first via an Esponsorama Ducati partnership with Valentino Rossi’s VR46 team, and then as a full VR46 Ducati rider once Rossi’s team made the move to the premier class on a full-scale basis.

Marini celebrated his maiden podium at the Circuit of the Americas in 2023, before going on to secure Sprint podiums later that year in Indonesia and Thailand. Marini also broke the lap record in Indonesia to take his first pole.

More success followed in 2023 when Marini secured pole position in Qatar and followed this up with a Sprint and GP podium at the Lusail International Circuit.

Advice from The Doctor and brother, Valentino Rossi for Luca Marini

Given his success in 2023, it came as a surprise to many that Marini chose to depart not only Ducati, but his brother’s team in favour of the struggling factory Honda team.

Whilst there have been no podiums during his time with HRC, Marini’s results have continued to improve as the bike becomes more competitive.

“We are very happy to have Luca joining us from 2027,” Tech3 KTM team manager, Nicolas Goyon said. “He has already shown his ability to perform at the highest level, and his experience in MotoGP will be extremely valuable as we enter this new chapter.

“He has a strong understanding of what is required from both the rider and technical side, and we are confident that he will be an important part of our progress with KTM. We are looking forward to working with him and seeing what we can achieve together.”

Marini is expected to be joined inside the Tech3 KTM garage by current Moto2 frontrunner Senna Agius.

- Josh Close

WHY ASTON MARTIN'S CAR IS AS BAD AS HONDA'S ENGINE

Honda's engine has been a lightning rod for criticism in a woeful start to its new Formula 1 partnership with Aston Martin.

But Aston Martin's car is at least as bad and while the prospect of short-term progress is at least greater on the chassis side, the team admits it must be "honest" about its part in the terrible deficit the AMR26 has at the start of 2026.

Honda's engine problems are well established, as it is down on power and suffers from poor reliability, but they do not explain everything that has gone wrong so far to leave Aston Martin around 3.5 seconds slower than the fastest pace in qualifying.

As Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack said in Japan: "We are not great in high-speed corners. We are not on the weight limit."

This is a chronically troubled package that gets to corners slower, goes through them slower, and accelerates off them slower. Minimum speeds being down by as much as 20km/h (12mph) to the fastest cars in qualifying at the last round at Suzuka showed that even when the drivers were approaching corners much slower than rivals, they still had to be conservative.

The downforce just seems to be surprisingly lacking for a car team boss and technical chief Adrian Newey reckoned pre-season was probably already a chassis that could run in the top 10 if engines were not a factor.

"I look at our package and I don't feel as if we've particularly missed anything," he said at the Australian Grand Prix season opener.

"So therefore I believe that the car has huge tremendous development potential in it.

"It will take of course a few races for us to fully realise that potential. We've got quite an aggressive development plan under way.

"It's fair to say that here in Melbourne we are a bit behind the leaders. Probably I would say maybe we're the fifth-best team, so sort of potential Q3 qualifiers, on the chassis side.

"Obviously not where we want to be, but with the potential to be up front at some point in the season."

There is no obvious caveat here that Newey meant 'in time we will be potential Q3 qualifiers with this chassis' once that development plan kicks in. He was talking as though that was the AMR26's immediate place in the pecking order, and it could become a frontrunner in time, but was being dragged down by the engine.

As the season has unfolded, that position has seemed less and less valid.

Aston Martin is 2-2.5s adrift of the lead midfield teams which includes Alpine, using a Mercedes engine. For Newey's claim that Aston Martin's chassis could qualify in the top 10 to be true, Honda's engine would need to be 2.5s a lap worse than the benchmark.

Nobody seems to believe this is the case, even though it is impossible to put an exact figure on what the split in responsibility really is. An equal responsibility for the deficit would put it at around 1.5-1.7s each for car and engine, but some even think the car might be a bigger problem right now.

Newey's position may have shifted since the season started, of course. Certainly there has been no attempt from Krack to side-step Aston Martin's role in the troubles.

He said in Japan: "We have some major steps to take, not small steps that we have now done with reliability." And when he said there is a "big mountain to climb", he did not just mean for Honda. Do not forget that Aston Martin is producing its own in-house gearbox for the first time since 2008, too, and this has been speculated to be overweight as well.

Separating what is car and what is engine has never been harder in F1 given how symbiotic the two parts are in the new energy-limited 2026 formula. The whole purpose of a works partnership is to have everything working together beautifully in tandem. But trying to incorporate each other's desires can also be fraught with peril.

Honda has previously said a desire from Aston Martin to make the overall engine length shorter and more compact, for example, prompted revisions to most of the engine's peripheral equipment and how it is integrated into the car.

Although the design of the engine itself did not have to be changed, these kinds of demands could be part of how Aston Martin is potentially responsible for some mechanical engine weaknesses. Another example is the chassis itself.

When Honda's engine started the year shaking itself to pieces with excessive vibrations, which in turn also caused reasonably significant driver discomfort, the finger was effectively pointed at the engine manufacturer.

As time has passed, though, the possibility of this being at least partly a chassis problem has not been discounted.

That could be the construction of the chassis itself somehow being more prone to transmitting the vibrations or, perhaps more likely, the way the engine has to be integrated with it - especially as the MGU-K and battery are mounted to the chassis.

This could be why Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe said at Suzuka: "In the test on the dyno the vibration is an acceptable level, but once we integrate in the actual chassis, that vibration is getting much more than the test on the dyno.

"So, of course [we] cannot solve the problem [with] only the power unit, so we are really closely together with Aston Martin to solve the problem, not only the power unit but also together with the chassis."

So, while Honda has underdelivered so far, it is obviously fair to conclude that Aston Martin falling so far below its own expectations is not solely the responsibility of its engine partner.

And lead driver Fernando Alonso has dropped several hints that a car overhaul could be required.

Alonso told DAZN Spain that the car is going to stay the same way "for the next 10" races, although it seems unlikely Aston Martin won't have any car upgrades at all. What Alonso probably meant is that nothing meaningful is going to change and it's the final part of 2026, at the earliest, where there could be a big overhaul, as he said Aston Martin will not change too much on this car if it knows "it will change completely in a few months' time".

As Newey claimed the car itself has a strong foundation, it will be interesting to see if Aston Martin's development will be based on that or mean having to go in a different direction. Either way, Alonso's not expecting a drastic change in fortune until after the summer break.

If there is a load of hidden goodness in the AMR26, then more track time and extensive development work could unleash it. It's fair to say this remains F1's most underexploited 2026 package because the car simply hasn't done enough laps to optimise.

And Alonso is still fully on message that there is "very, very huge potential on the car and on the engine as well". He's referenced McLaren going from being at the back at the start of 2023 to scoring podiums that year, then emerging as a race and title-winning force.

And while he admitted that is an optimistic reference for Aston Martin as its circumstances are so different, it is certainly true that a rubbish start to the year doesn't have to mean the whole season's a write-off.

April is also a very useful gap to make some progress. It will allow a load of work already ongoing to hopefully come to fruition, with some weight to be taken off the car by Miami and maybe car upgrades to start addressing the high-speed load and balance problems.

Krack said "you cannot produce miracles" in five weeks, though, so whatever progress can be made is likely to be minor compared to what Aston Martin will hope is possible over the rest of the year.

- SCOTT MITCHELL-MALM

ADRIAN NEWEY ON HONDA’S ENGINE STRUGGLES

 

ASTON MARTIN SAYS ITS F1 CAR RISKS GIVING DRIVERS 'NERVE DAMADE'

Aston Martin has predicted it is unlikely to finish Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix without its drivers risking suffering permanent nerve damage

Headlines from ABC News LiveCatch up on the developing stories making headlines.
The Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Aston Martin has predicted it is unlikely to finish Formula 1's season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday without its drivers risking suffering permanent nerve damage.

Adrian Newey, the F1 car design great who’s heading into his first race as Aston Martin’s team principal, said Thursday the team's Honda power unit causes vibrations which could damage the hands of drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Neither will likely be able to tolerate even half of the 58-lap race distance, Newey added.

Aston Martin had a poor preseason, often slower even than new team Cadillac and it logged the fewest laps of all 11 teams.

“That vibration (transmitted from Honda’s power unit) into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems,” said Newey.

“Mirrors falling off the air, tail lights falling off, that sort of thing, which we are having to address. But, the much more significant problem with that is that that vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers.

“So Fernando is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage into his hands. Lance is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.

“We are going to have to be very heavily restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration — and to improve the vibration at source.”

Despite the long list of issues, Newey says the AMR26 car has tremendous potential as F1 starts a new era of regulations.

He argued the chassis is F1’s fifth-best behind the expected top-teams Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull and that, following an aggressive development program, has the potential to run at the front at some point in 2026.

Alonso, though, is keeping the faith until Friday practice in Melbourne, where he believes fixes on the car might provide a sunnier outlook.

“For us, it’s just vibrating everything,” the two-time F1 champion said.

“But it’s not only for us. The car is struggling a little bit, so that’s why we have some issues, some reliability problems that made our days slightly short

“Since (pre-season testing in) Bahrain, there were a couple of tests done and some of the solutions are implemented on the car now, so (I’m) curious to see what (happens) tomorrow (and) if we can improve.”

Its disappointing performance has been variously attributed to a compressed design time due to late arrival; Honda’s need to rebuild its research and development capabilities after leaving Red Bull, the challenge of producing a new in-house gearbox, and the team running a so-far unproven fuels partner in Aramco.

But it’s the side effects that will likely sideline its cars early in Sunday’s race at Albert Park.

- STEWART BELL, Associated Press

CAN HONDA HRC CASTROL RETURN TO WINNING WAYS IN MOTOGP 2026?

Honda HRC Castrol has become the last team to reveal its 2026 MotoGP livery.

Joan Mir, Luca Marini, on 2026 factory Honda MotoGP bikes. Credit: Honda Racing Corporation.

Honda has unveiled its factory MotoGP livery for the 2026 season in an online event, becoming the final team to show off its 2026 colours.

The livery is largely similar to what it used in 2025, which was the first season of HRC’s partnership with Castrol on its factory MotoGP team after Repsol ended its lengthy association with the team at the end of 2024.

The colours are not all that is the same between Honda’s 2025 look and its 2026 image, as both Luca Marini and Joan Mir stay on for a third year of their partnership at the team. For Mir, it will be a fourth season with HRC after joining from Suzuki at the end of 2022, while Marini has been at Honda since the end of 2024.

2026 Honda HRC Castrol MotoGP bikes. Credit: Honda Racing Corporation.

“It’s a pleasure to begin another season with Honda HRC Castrol,” said Marini.

“The progress we showed in 2025 was incredibly rewarding and all winter I have been working to improve myself and begin this new season in 2026. 

“Our objectives are clear: to be there fighting near the front and take full advantage of any and all opportunities which are presented to us. Everyone in this project has done their homework over the winter and I am itching to get back on the Honda RC213V and ride again.

 “In the last year of the 1,000cc we need to finish in a good way and enjoy the beautiful moments along the way.”

Joan Mir added: “Another beautiful bike that I am proud to ride, being part of Honda HRC Castrol is something very special. In 2026 we need to find the consistency we struggled with last year, we showed that both myself and the Honda RC213V have the speed and ability to make Honda HRC proud. 

“These two pre-seasons test will be very important to prepare everything well for the start of the year, I am certain that all the Honda HRC engineers have been working diligently during the winter. 

“There is no time to wait around, we need to be working from the first lap to achieve our maximum and return Honda HRC to where it belongs.”

2026 Honda HRC Castrol MotoGP bike. Credit: Honda Racing Corporation.

Both riders are out of contract at the end of this year, and Honda has reportedly already signed Fabio Quartararo to fill one of its factory seats in 2027. Diogo Moreira, who was revealed in his Pro Honda LCR colours for his rookie season in the Italian team’s launch on 1 February, is also potentially in-line for a factory promotion in 2027 should he perform well enough this year. The Brazilian’s current contract with HRC expires in 2028.

Honda’s position in the rider market has been improved by the developments it made during 2025, especially in the second half of the season in which it claimed podiums in both Japan and Malaysia with Mir.

- Alex Whitworth

U.S. CUSTOMS DERAILED RED BULL-FORD F1 ENGINE TEST BY SEIZING A TURBOCHARGER

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Red Bull Racing is taking a massive leap into the unknown this season by debuting its first in-house F1 power unit. As part of its new partnership, Ford contributed a significant amount of resources to the engine's development. However, it wasn't entirely smooth sailing for the fledgling program. A race to test a turbocharger before the 2022 summer break was derailed after the component was seized by US Customs and Border Protection. While most F1 teams are based in the United Kingdom, many have alliances that require collaborating across international borders.

For those unfamiliar with F1, the championship's governing body imposes a mandatory summer break to give team personnel a reprieve from the nearly year-round season. Christian Hertrich, Ford Racing's powertrain chief engineer, recounted an astonishing tale to The Drive indirectly caused by this regulatory deadline. Red Bull didn't have the facilities to test the turbo, so the program decided to stuff it into a briefcase and have an engineer hand-deliver it to Ford in Michigan. However, a customs agent decided to seize the component. Hertrich said:

So, I realized I was working in Formula 1 when I was at Customs and Border Patrol at 2 a.m., trying to recover this turbocharger because within 12 hours, we had to pull the plug for the summer shutdown, and after that, we couldn't do any more testing. We had to get data off of this to meet our deadlines. That was my opening experience, and it was legitimately sitting at the airport dealing with Border Patrol."

Crossing borders is as familiar to F1 teams as skirting the rules

Oracle Red Bull Racing / Red Bull Content Pool

Hertrich would note that Ford and Red Bull had yet to establish a proper procedure for moving parts across the Atlantic with the necessary paperwork. The situation is far different four years later. Ocean-spanning partnerships aren't new to Red Bull or F1 as a whole. The team previously partnered with Honda. The Japanese automaker is now paired with Aston Martin. Haas, an American team, splits its operations between Britain and North Carolina. Cadillac is poised to do the same with its stateside base outside of Indianapolis.

Rival F1 teams wish they could seize Red Bull's turbocharger. The new power unit is facing scrutiny over rumors that it could exceed the 16:1 compression ratio limit set by this year's technical regulations. The technical chiefs from every F1 team are set to convene at an FIA meeting next week, where the topic will be discussed. It's feared that Red Bull-Ford-powered cars could have a 13-horsepower advantage on the rest of the field, estimated to be worth four-tenths of a second per lap.

- RYAN ERIK KING

ASTON MARTIN AMR26 ROARS: HONDA'S 2026 POWER PLAY BEGINS

Aston Martin lights up 2026: AMR26 fires up as Honda era begins to hum

There’s a new sound in Silverstone — and it’s not a V6 on a dyno. Aston Martin pressed the starter on its 2026 challenger, the AMR26, before the winter shutdown, with Honda engineers on hand as the team’s works power-unit partnership clicks from paperwork to petrol.

The team shared a short clip from inside its factory as the first fire-up ran clean, a familiar ritual of sensor checks, fuel pressure numbers and nervous glances finally giving way to applause. Fire-ups don’t win races, but they’re the line in the sand every programme wants before Christmas: chassis and power unit talking to each other, systems awake, timelines on track.

This one mattered more than most. It’s the first publicly shared fire-up of a 2026 Formula 1 car, a neat marker as the grid barrels toward the biggest tech shake-up in years. Aston Martin’s exclusive deal with Honda begins next season, the Japanese manufacturer returning as a full works supplier with an all-new hybrid unit designed around the incoming regulations. Honda recently teased its own 2026 power unit in a separate post-season video; now we’ve heard the engine and the car sing together for the first time in green.

The AMR26 will break cover on 8 February, with the team weighing up a camouflage or plain testing livery for the opening five-day pre-season run in Barcelona, scheduled to be held behind closed doors from 26 January. That timing’s tight, and it makes this early systems check all the more valuable.

If you’ve followed Aston Martin’s trajectory over the last few seasons, the picture’s clear: significant hiring, new facilities, and now a factory power unit deal designed to lock in performance and control. Fernando Alonso, who has seen a few “next eras” in his time, sounded quietly bullish about the reset that 2026 brings.

“I’m optimistic, because it’s a reset of things. You know, everyone has the chance to do a better job than the others,” Alonso said in Abu Dhabi as the 2025 season wound down. “We start from scratch… We have our new facilities completed now, we have our own wind tunnel. We have Honda as engine supplier – and only for us. Aramco, Adrian Newey… so we have some good things to be optimistic about, but this is a very competitive sport, and everyone is doing a very good job. So we’ll see.”

What his comments get at is the difference between a quick car and a complete project. The campus at Silverstone is online, the wind tunnel is theirs, and Honda’s unit is being developed with Aston Martin’s packaging and aero philosophy in mind from day one. In a rules reset, those margins become multipliers.

And yet, caution is built into the tone coming out of the team. 2026’s slimmer, lighter cars and the revised power unit formula — with more electrical deployment and new energy management demands — mean concepts will diverge early. “A lot of things will happen in the first three or four months of the year,” Alonso added. “When you discover the cars and which direction and philosophy everyone took, you learn a lot in the first two or three races… I think we have the right people and the right facilities and environment to have a good season. So it’s up to us.”

Between now and launch, the job list is the same one every technical group knows by heart: correlation, cooling, wiring looms, weight, aero surfaces, and the hundreds of “small” decisions that decide whether a platform is forgiving or fussy. But getting a new engine architecture to behave inside a fresh chassis on the first press of the starter is an underrated win. It confirms that the architecture — fuel, oil, hydraulics, hybrid systems, electronics — is integrating as designed. It also frees the team to chase performance rather than firefight reliability gremlins when the clock starts ticking in January.

The significance of “first to make noise” shouldn’t be overstated; rivals will be running their own integration tests in quiet workshops up and down Europe. But in a sport that feeds on momentum and message discipline, Aston Martin choosing to show the milestone is a statement of intent. The last time the regulations flipped, one team nailed it and feasted for three seasons. The rest took numbers and went back to work.

This time, Aston Martin wants to be the one setting the pace — and the soundtrack suggests they’re at least in rhythm. The answers arrive soon enough: Barcelona’s hush-hush mileage, a February launch, and then the opening rounds when concepts stop being CAD models and start being lap times. For now, the AMR26 breathes. That’s step one.

- Alex Albuquerque

ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO ANNOUNCES CHANGES TO LEADERSHIP STRUCTURE AHEAD OF 2026 SEASON

Aston Martin Aramco announces changes to leadership structure ahead of the 2026 season.

Andy Cowell and Adrian Newey have agreed to divide their responsibilities in order to focus on their individual strengths and expertise, ensuring organisational efficiency.

Andy Cowell will take on a new role as Chief Strategy Officer, using his unique experience to help optimise the technical partnership between the Team, Honda, Aramco and Valvoline.

Adrian Newey will take on the role of Team Principal from 2026 and will be guiding the technical team, including the trackside operations of the car.

Lawrence Stroll, Executive Chairman, addressed the team at AMRTC today to share the news.

- Aston Martin Aramco

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FORD PROVIDE UPDATE ON ALL-NEW RED BULL F1 ENGINE

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Ford

Ford has shared further insight into the development of Red Bull's F1 power unit for 2026, the team's first season as an engine manufacturer.

Mark Rushbrook, global director at Ford performance, has outlined how the project is going from the American car giant's perspective, which has entered a partnership with the Milton Keynes-based squad to see in the new era of F1 power unit regulations.

With Honda leaving for Aston Martin, Red Bull Powertrains (RBPT) is making good on its initial plans to become an OEM (before the Japanese marque reversed its decision to leave the championship), with Ford by its side.

With significant changes to how F1 engines will work from next season, the technical and strategic relationship between Red Bull and Ford is of paramount importance to how the six-time constructors' champions perform next term - and beyond.

"The partnership is actually getting stronger every day, from the first discussions and the moment the contract was signed, although the work had already started before that," Rushbrook told the Dutch branch of Motorsport.com.

"We are contributing in a number of ways. In general, we are on track with our timeline for the ICE [internal combustion engine] and the electrical components.

"There is obviously still a lot of work to do and a lot to prove in terms of durability, but the partnership - the openness, the trust and the contribution from both sides - has been excellent so far. It's everything we hoped for and actually more than we expected."

The original remit of the partnership was for Ford to handle power unit electronics for the team, but the scope has broadened, including to the producing of the ICE.

Now, Red Bull is utilising even more expertise and resources at Ford's disposal. "Initially the focus was on electrification," Rushbrook explained. "But with our advanced manufacturing facility and our [3D] printing machines, we can make things in real time.

"We are literally making things every day that come out of Dearborn, are shipped and are tested in the lab in Milton Keynes."

Is the power unit reaching its targets?

Rushbrook also confirmed the power unit is currently meeting its targets, but was keen to stress that to "achieve everything 100 percent" is not a realistic expectation.

When asked if targets are currently being reached and that everything is going according to plan, he highlighted the need to be reactive to how development unfolds.

"Yes, although of course there are always exceptions because you can never achieve everything 100 percent," he replied.

"But when it comes to achieving the power numbers, then absolutely. Then it's about the reliability tests to match that.

"Do you achieve everything perfectly? No, but that's the reality of any programme. It just happens as you go along and then it's about how you respond, in terms of urgency and in terms of the mindset of the people. So we respond to what we see."

He added: "When the engine develops and finds more power, then of course it's always about testing reliability. So it's: power, reliability, power, reliability."

- Samuel Coop

2026 ENGINE SUPPLIERS FOR FORMULA 1 TEAMS

 

HONDA WILL NOT 'INTERFERE' WITH YUKI TSUNODA'S F1 CAREER AMID RED BULL MOVE

Getty Images: Mark Thompson 

The president of the Honda Racing Corporation has said it will not “interfere” with Yuki Tsunoda’s Formula 1 career after his recent promotion to Red Bull.

Tsunoda has been the centre of attention for the last week, having finally earned a promotion from Red Bull’s junior team in a switch which sees Liam Lawson swapped after only two Grand Prix weekends.

The Japanese driver, who is now in his fifth season of F1, had been overlooked for the seat alongside Max Verstappen, suggesting that a move away from the Red Bull programme might be beneficial to his career.

Some speculation had previously tipped him to move to Aston Martin, which is about to begin a powertrain partnership with Honda, but its president, Koji Watanabe, has intimated that it will not make moves to lure the 24-year-old away.

“Our partnership with Red Bull will conclude this year, so we have no leverage to pressure Red Bull regarding 2026,” he said. “He earned his promotion to Red Bull based on his performance, so he must continue proving himself to remain there in the coming years.

“The most important thing is his own will – since he wants to continue with Red Bull, we have no reason to interfere.”

No ‘special actions’ taken by Honda to secure Tsunoda’s Red Bull move

Last week, Watanabe said he was “delighted” by Tsuonda’s move to Red Bull, and with confirmation he is still in a “sponsorship agreement” with Honda, which still shares a relationship with Red Bull, in as much as that its V6 hybrid engines are still powering the Milton Keynes squad’s car, albeit developed and rebadged under the Red Bull Powertrains name.

It was also reported by Dutch newspaper De Limburger that Honda was prepared to pay Red Bull millions to ensure Tsunoda would replace Lawson, after the Kiwi endured a torrid opening two Grands Prix with the team.

However, Watanabe has tried to quell such a notion was accurate, saying that whilst its relationship with the Red Bull hierarchy remains strong, it did not hold or use any influence.

“We don’t know when or how Red Bull will make [a given] decision, so we always communicate that they should choose the best driver,” he said. “I have very good communication with Christian Horner, and we constantly discuss not just driver personnel matters but also trackside support structures.

“This time, we did not take any special actions.”

Tsunoda will fittingly make his first race appearance for Red Bull at the Japanese Grand Prix – his home race – at Suzuka, a track operated by Honda, in a special livery commemorating Honda’s involvement in F1.

- Jack Oliver Smith

MERCEDES TO LAUNCH 2025 F1 CAR TWO DAYS BEFORE TESTING STARTS

Mercedes will present their new car for the 2025 Formula 1 season on February 24th.

The team has opted for an online presentation for its new W16 by distributing images across its many platforms. Mercedes will reveal the car’s livery a week earlier at F1’s new official pre-season launch event, F1 75, on February 18th.

Mercedes intend to run the W16 for the first time the following day, when it will also reveal more footage of the new car. Both the team’s drivers are expected to have the opportunity to drive. George Russell is going into his fourth season at the team while Andrea Kimi Antonelli makes his debut in Formula 1, taking over the seat previously occupied by Lewis Hamilton.

The team will break with its recent tradition by running its new car for the first time at the Bahrain International Circuit instead of Silverstone, close to its Brackley and Brixworth factories. The W16’s first run will take place one day before the beginning of pre-season testing at the same track. Last year Mercedes launched its new car a full week before testing began.

F1 teams will test for three days in Bahrain, starting on the 26th, before heading to Melbourne, Australia for the season-opening race in mid-March.

Mercedes will go into the new season looking for their first world championship success since 2021, when they won the constructors’ title with Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. Last year McLaren won the constructors’ championship using Mercedes power units. Williams, who also use Mercedes power, have already announced the launch date for their new car, which will appear on February 14th. Aston Martin will use Mercedes power units for the last time this year before switching to Honda engines.

- Keith Collantine

YUKI TSUNODA: CHRISTIAN HORNER HINTS AT RED BULL EXIT AFTER 2025

Yuki Tsunoda will represent experience and continuity at Racing Bulls next year but, passed over for promotion, the Japanese looks to be running out of road at the Red Bull-owned Formula 1 team.

A flurry of Red Bull announcements culminated on Friday with 20-year-old Isack Hadjar confirmed as Tsunoda's teammate.

The Frenchman takes the seat vacated by New Zealander Liam Lawson, who joins four times champion Max Verstappen at the main team after Mexican Sergio Pérez was dropped.

Tsunoda, 24, will be starting his fifth year with the team previously known as AlphaTauri and RB and has close ties to Red Bull's engine partners Honda.

The Japanese manufacturer is leaving Red Bull at the end of 2025, however, to work with Aston Martin.

"We're acutely aware that if we're not able to provide an opportunity for Yuki [at Red Bull] in all honesty this year, does it [keeping him on] make sense?," Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told reporters.

"You can't have a driver in the support team for five years. You can't always be the bridesmaid. You've either got to let them go at that point or look at something different."

Horner said he had spoken with Tsunoda, a fan favourite currently enjoying time off in Japan, and the driver was determined to show what he could do.

"I think he's very determined. He knows that things change very quickly," the Briton said. "Who would have thought nine months ago that we'd be sitting here talking about Liam Lawson being our driver for 2025?

Yuki Tsunoda missed out on a drive with Red Bull in 2025. Mark Thompson/Getty Images

"Things change quickly in this industry and he's aware of that and he knows that he needs to be the one demonstrating that he's the one knocking on the door."

Italy-based Racing Bulls, who have had several name changes after Red Bull bought Minardi in 2005 and renamed them Toro Rosso, have always been a feeder for the title-winning main Milton Keynes team.

Drivers to have come through their ranks include four times world champions Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen as well as race winners Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz.

Hadjar is one of a group of young prospects coming into the sport and Red Bull also have Arvid Lindblad as an exciting talent on the horizon.

Horner rates the 17-year-old, who has both British and Swedish nationality, particularly highly after a strong rookie season in Formula 3 including a Silverstone double win.

Currently without a super-licence, Lindblad will be seeking the necessary points in New Zealand early next year before a full F2 season that could set him up for promotion in 2026 at Tsunoda's expense.

- Reuters 

THE PARADOX OF MOTOGP CONCESSIONS: EVERYTHING CHANGES SO NOTHING CHANGES

 OPINION: Despite the advantages offered by the concessions, Yamaha and Honda are significantly worse at this stage compared to last year. However, both brands are confident that the package of improvements they plan to introduce at the Misano MotoGP test will act as a turning point.

With the new regulatory framework that came into force following a unanimous vote by all MotoGP manufacturers, Yamaha and Honda were placed in the D class. This allows them, among other things, to ride with their regular rider line-up as many times as they want and to make engine modifications - something that is not allowed to the rest.

But a simple glance at the championship standings might make you think that this favourable treatment has not only hurt the two Japanese companies in the championship, but has even been counterproductive for them.

After the first nine rounds on the calendar, the best-placed Yamaha rider is Fabio Quartararo, who is 15th in the standings with a total of 44 points. Last year, the Frenchman was also the most competitive Yamaha rider, but he was four places higher in the standings and had accumulated 65 points.

His peaks were higher in 2023 too. Quartararo had placed third in Austin and finished in the top 10 on five occasions, something he has achieved only twice in 2024. His best grand prix result so far remains a seventh place back at the second round in Portugal.

On the other side of the garage, the decline is even greater. At this stage of the season in 2023, Franco Morbidelli was 12th, one place behind Quartararo and six points back. Now Alex Rins, who filled the vacancy left by the Italian when he signed for Pramac Ducati, is 21st and has just eight points to date this season. In mitigation, it is worth noting however that Rins began his Yamaha career in a rather poor physical state, having suffered a badly damaged leg in a crash at Mugello just over a year ago.

If the Yamaha example is already striking in itself, the Honda example is blatant. At this point in the previous season, Rins was its spearhead after winning in Austin. Despite being out of action for four races after his Mugello crash, he was Honda's best runner in 13th place in the standings with 47 points. Now Joan Mir leads HRC's MotoGP bid, although the Spaniard is 18th, with just 13 points in the bag and having yet to cross the finish line inside the top 10.

Just behind him is Johann Zarco (19th), one point back. Takaaki Nakagami is 20th, with 10 points, while further back still is Luca Marini in 23rd, the last of the full-time riders. He scored his first point in Germany by finishing 15th.

At the Sachsenring, the best Honda was 14th with Nakagami at the helm. He was 12 seconds faster in terms of race time compared to 2023, when he was also the quickest Honda. But that was exactly the difference between Jorge Martin's time to win in 2023 and Francesco Bagnaia's time to clinch victory this time around. By the same token, Quartararo was 18 seconds faster than a year ago, which suggests that Yamaha is reacting a little quicker than Honda.

Any regulatory change takes time to begin to bear fruit, even more so for two Japanese companies, faithful for decades to their very conservative philosophy. Concessions are inviting them to change the pace and Yamaha seems to be more open to trying new routes.

'Yamaha and Honda are targeting the test after the San Marino Grand Prix as the event where the effect of the concessions can be assessed'

The additions of Max Bartolini as technical director and Marco Nicotra in the aerodynamics division epitomise the new look that is taking hold. In addition to signing these two mainstays from Ducati, Yamaha has shaken up its protocols and moved much of the operations and design of important parts of the bike from Japan to Europe. Using Dallara in Italy has greatly reduced the lead time of an aerodynamic component to go from design to manufacture to testing. Before, everything had to go through Japan, where processes sometimes took what felt like forever.

"Not only has communication improved a lot, but also everything goes much faster," Quartararo acknowledged a few days ago when asked by Motorsport.com whether the reaction promised by Lin Jarvis which ultimately convinced him to renew his terms at Yamaha has been realised. 

"We ask for something and it is tested in much less time than before. The commitment I asked for when I renewed has been maintained."

The other promise Quartararo sought, to bring back the satellite team, was formalised last month when the incorporation of Pramac from 2025 was made official.

Motorsport Images 

Yamaha has already raced with two different engine configurations thanks to the concessions, which have thawed its and Honda's power unit development. But Honda is much lazier when it comes to experimenting with its traditional way of doing things. In fact, until recently, the Japanese technicians were still working on the ideal engine concept for their bike. In the current version of the RC213V, the engine rotates forwards, while the rest of the grid rotates backwards.

"It was already clear to us that we needed to change," said Mir a few weeks ago. "We just needed them [the Japanese engineers] to be convinced."

Whether they do or don't, both Yamaha and Honda are targeting the test after the San Marino Grand Prix as the event where the effect of the concessions can be assessed. "We expect to have a quite different bike there, and that will be a reflection of all the conclusions of this first part of the season," a source in Honda's technical department tells Motorsport.com.

At the start of summer break, the first point of evaluation of the concessions introduced, neither of the two Japanese factories has come close to the 35% of points they needed to move up to the next tier. Yamaha has dropped by 6% (21%) and Honda by 5% (16%).

Although less dramatic, the same is true of KTM, which has dropped 1% of its points percentage, and Aprilia, which has risen 5% to keep both in the C class. Ducati, from its vantage point of dominance, remains the only manufacturer in Group A, keeping above 95% of the points. Thus, all teams will continue until the end of the season under the same conditions as far as concessions are concerned.

Photo by Marc Fieury

 

ENGINE SUPPLIERS | FORMULA 1

MARC MARQUEZ TO JOIN GRESINI RACING TEAM AFTER HONDA EXIT

Reuters 

Marc Marquez will join Gresini Racing for the 2024 season, the Ducati satellite team said on Thursday, days after Honda announced the six-times MotoGP world champion would be leaving the Japanese manufacturer at the end of the 2023 campaign.

Honda and Marquez agreed to terminate their four-year contract a year early, ending an 11-year association and clearing the way for the 30-year-old to switch to a Ducati machine, the dominant force in MotoGP over the last two seasons.

MARC MARQUEZ & REPSOL HONDA TEAM | MOTOGP