Honda will introduce further countermeasures to reduce engine vibrations and improve reliability at the Miami Grand Prix after “making some progress” during the five-week race break.
The Japanese manufacturer teamed up with Aston Martin for 2026, aiming to turn the Silverstone-based team into race winners and championship contenders. The AMR26, however, suffered from production delays and performance and reliability issues, with designer Adrian Newey admitting the car “came together at the last minute.” That left Aston Martin slow and often unable to complete race distances.
So far this season the team have been classified at the finish only once — Fernando Alonso’s 18th place in Japan — while both Alonso’s and Lance Stroll’s running in Australia and China was seriously hampered by severe vibrations.
An extended gap between events, caused by the cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix, gave Honda and Aston Martin extra time to work on solutions. At the Miami International Autodrome, Honda’s Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer Shintaro Orihara outlined the work done between races.
“It has been a long but intense period between the races with lots of work happening in collaboration with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team both in Japan and in the UK,” Orihara said. “The Japanese Grand Prix showed that the work is going in the right direction and helped us to find the motivation to keep pushing forward.”
After Japan, the team kept one of the AMR26 cars on-site for further static testing in Sakura — a first — concentrating on reducing vibrations to boost reliability. Orihara added: “We have made some progress, allowing us to implement further countermeasures in Miami and later in the season. Realistically, this progress will not have a visible impact on the power unit performance on track, so we shouldn’t be expecting big jumps forward here.”
Alonso acknowledged Honda’s efforts and expressed cautious optimism that the solutions brought to Miami could improve the car’s immediate reliability, with performance gains to follow. “At Silverstone, about the aero performance, we think that there is pace to unlock there, and [at Honda’s headquarters] in Sakura it’s about two things: reliability and vibrations, and also performance,” the two-time world champion said. “It seems that we bring here some solutions for the vibrations and the reliability, and hopefully we see some positive news on the car when we drive it. Hopefully the performance will come in the next step.”
Stroll echoed that view while tempering expectations about rapid improvement. “I think we know the problems. We have an idea of some of the answers, but getting parts made, putting upgrades on the car and fixing all the problems is a different story,” he said. “It doesn’t happen overnight, so this weekend we’re focused on the vibrations. Hopefully that will be better, and then throughout the course of the season we’re just trying to bring as much performance as we can. We’re far away, and we know that, but we’re doing our best.”
Aston Martin and Honda will roll out the next set of countermeasures in Miami and continue development across the season as they pursue reliability fixes first, with power and pace improvements to follow.