Aston Martin does not beat, it vibrates

Honda explained part of the serious problems that the English team has before the start of the 2026 World Championship and they are working against the clock to solve it before the Australian GP.

The countdown to the start of the 77th Formula 1 season has just one digit in the days section. The Australian GP will open the World Championship agenda on March 8, but two days before the official activity will begin with the two training sessions. The teams finalize their preparation after extremely intense work because the category will release new technical regulations and everyone had to make new cars and will use power units different from those used until 2025. The preseason tests were the test bed for the teams to reach Melbourne. Some will already incorporate developments on the first date, others a little later, but all will be on an upward curve in terms of the introduction of updates. The passage of the private tests in Barcelona and the tests in Bahrain left something evident: Aston Martin is very far away and has a number of very worrying problems.

Lawrence Stroll, the millionaire owner of the Silverstone-based team, did not shy away from opening his wallet in search of putting the green cars in the fight at the front of the F1 grid.. The hiring of Adrian Newey and the construction of an impressive new plant are data that mark a huge investment in search of success. For the arrival of the new regulations, it closed ranks exclusively with Honda, leaving aside the engines provided by Mercedes-Benz. The great expectations generated by the AMR26 paid dividends when the car designed by the English guru was shown in Montmeló. The engineer with a past at Red Bull (among others) found the most radical solutions for the new regulations. But when the car hit the track all its miseries appeared.

Lack of reliability, breakages, low top speed compared to rivals… Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, the starting duo, suffered on every outing on the track, when they were able to turn, of course. With new rules, the key was to be able to add many kilometers in the tests to sift out all possible problems and arrive in Australia fine. This was not the case with Aston Martin and Honda. For the Japanese, the biggest problem was not having another chance to test because their power units are only used by Aston Martin. For example, Mercedes has, in addition to its comprehensive team, three more teams (McLaren, Alpine and Williams). The star added 21,500 kilometers of tests. Ferrari has the Scuderia, Cadillac and Haas and they completed 16,100 kilometers. Red Bull Ford Powertrains, the power unit that emerged from Milton Keynes to supply Austrian cars and Racing Bulls, reached 10,500. The only supplier of engines that are in the same condition as Honda is Audi, which only pushes its own cars. The Germans added almost 5,000 kilometers, while Aston Martin completed 2,100.

Everyone at Aston Martin is already clear that in Australia they will be far (very far). Newey said after six or seven races they will be much better, a situation that does not please Fernando Alonso, who is about to turn 45 and does not have much time to wait. Not to mention Mr. Lawrence Stroll, who is singing.

From Honda they found part of the problem: vibrations. Those tremors that complicate the AMR26 come from the combustion engine and attack the electric drive battery. “If we could identify a single cause, it would be easier to solve it, but since there are multiple linked factors that generate the vibrationwe don’t know if solving just one of them will solve it. There is a possibility that it will take time,” said Ikuo Takeishi, one of HRC’s strong men.

In the middle of a quake, while their rivals think about developments and updates, Honda is racking their brains thinking about how to make the Aston Martins able to spin on the track without stopping. “At this stage, our priority is to resolve the current issue. We are looking ahead, but right now we are fully focused on the immediate issues. Whether we will introduce a major update or not is something that will be discussed later,” Takeishi added.

At its Sakura base, Honda works overtime to try to solve the problems as soon as possible and, once achieved, start thinking about competitiveness. There are many who cannot understand how Japanese power units do not work and if it comes from fighting for wins and titles with Red Bull. The key fact is that the house of energy drinks kept a good part of the qualified labor that Honda had when creating Red Bull Powertrains.