Aston Martin technical chief Adrian Newey has admitted the team only learned late about the scale of inexperience within Honda’s current engine operation after the Japanese manufacturer’s full return to Formula 1 this year.
Honda resumed a full works role for 2026 after ending its previous partnership with Red Bull at the end of 2021, though it continued to provide technical support to Red Bull until the end of last year. Its new power unit, designed for F1’s new regulations that split power roughly 50-50 between internal combustion and electrical energy, has struggled with performance and reliability, leaving Aston Martin’s AMR26 off the pace.
In Friday’s opening practice in Melbourne the team completed just three laps due to power unit problems. That improved to 31 laps in the second session, but Aston Martin remained the slowest team, their best time 4.9 seconds off the pace.
Explaining Honda’s stop-start involvement and the consequences, Newey said: “Honda pulled out at the end of 2021. They then re-entered the sport kind of at the end of 2022, so roughly a year and a bit out of the competition. When they reformed a lot of the original group had, it now transpires, disbanded, gone to work on solar panels or whatever. So a lot of the group that reformed are actually fresh to Formula 1, they didn’t bring the experience that they had had previously.
“Plus, when they came back in 2023 that was the first year of the budget cap introduction for engines so all their rivals had been developing away through ’21 and ’22 with continuity the existing team and free of budget cap. They re-entered with let’s say only, I’m guessing, 30 per cent of their original team and now in a budget cap era. So they started very much on the back foot and unfortunately they’ve struggled to catch back up.”
Asked whether Aston Martin had known about the shortfall in experience when the team signed its Honda deal in May 2023, Newey said they had not. “No, we weren’t. We only really became aware of it kind of November of last year when we — Lawrence [Stroll], Andy Cowell and myself — went to Tokyo to discuss as rumours starting to suggest that their original target power they wouldn’t achieve for race one. Out of that came the fact that many of the original workforce had not returned when they restarted.”
The problems extended beyond power and lap times. Severe vibrations from the power unit have affected the hybrid battery system, and Newey revealed the team had already seen significant battery damage. Aston Martin arrived in Melbourne with four batteries but have had conditioning or communication problems with two, leaving only two operational — effectively one per car — heading into the weekend.
“That given our kind of rate of battery damage is quite a scary place to be in,” Newey said, adding that while the team hoped to start both cars, it was difficult to be concrete about that. When asked if more batteries could be flown in, he conceded: “Unfortunately not. There aren’t any.”
On-track, Fernando Alonso missed the opening practice while Lance Stroll managed just three laps in the first session. Alonso returned for 18 laps in the afternoon and Stroll added 13 more, but both were near the bottom of the timesheets; only one other driver, who failed to post a proper time due to technical problems, was classified below them. Alonso said the car “didn’t feel much different than in Bahrain.”
Asked if Aston Martin would make Sunday’s grid, Alonso replied: “We are OK to do it. It’s more a question for Honda, if they have a stock.” He added the team was working hard to improve and remained more optimistic than the media: “We know where we are. We have a big challenge in front of us, but everyone in the team is embracing the challenge… Maybe we don’t see the progress that we all want to see, but there are things happening, smaller or bigger, but there is always progress in teams, so let’s hope that it’s visible in lap time as soon as possible.”
Sky Sports F1 Australian GP schedule
Saturday March 7
0.10am: F3 Sprint*
1.10am: Australian GP Practice Three (session starts at 1.30am)*
3.05am: F2 Sprint*
4.10am: Australian GP Qualifying build-up*
5am: AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING*
7am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*
9.45pm: F3 Feature Race*
Sunday March 8
12.20am: F2 Feature Race*
2.30am: Australian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
4am: THE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX*
6am: Australian GP reaction: Chequered Flag*
7am: Ted’s Notebook*
7.55am: Australian GP race replay*
10am: Australian GP highlights (also on Sky One)
*Also on Sky Sports Main Event
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