Aston Martin are going all-in to become potential championship challengers with the arrival of design legend Adrian Newey plus a works partnership with Honda to come.
Life in the pinnacle of motorsport has seldom yielded much success for the luxury British car brand to date. Throughout history, the Aston Martin name is still yet to clinch a single Grand Prix victory. Yet the team’s billionaire Canadian owner Lawrence Stroll has major aspirations.
Fernando Alonso also recorded eight of Aston Martin’s nine all-time podium finishes in 2023 alone after he joined the Silverstone-based squad from Alpine. Signing the Spaniard was one of Stroll’s major acts to change their fortunes, including Newey joining Aston Martin in 2025.
Koji Watanabe admits Honda are ‘struggling’ with Aston Martin’s 2026 F1 engine
Newey will arrive for his first day in Silverstone as Aston Martin’s managing technical partner and as a shareholder on March 3 after leaving Red Bull last year. He will rank beside CEO and new Aston Martin team principal Andy Cowell at the top of the Formula 1 team’s leadership.
Stroll gave Newey shares in Aston Martin to get the most successful car designer yet to the team for Formula 1’s 2026 engine and chassis regulations. Aston Martin will even be a works Honda power unit team in 2026 after the Japanese crew switched allegiances from Red Bull.
Honda split from Red Bull after initially pulling the plug on the brand’s F1 engine project only to then link with Aston Martin after Formula 1 confirmed its new regulations. F1 will remove the expensive MGU-H and increase the electrical power, with a 50-50 split with combustion.
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But in a disappointing update for Newey and Aston Martin, Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) president Koji Watanabe has admitted the Japanese outfit are ‘struggling’ with developing a power unit for F1’s 2026 regulations. Developing the battery is especially difficult for Honda.
“We are struggling,” Watanabe conceded, via quotes by Speedcafe. “Now, we are trying our best to show the result next year.
“Everything is new. The motor is a new 355-kW, very compact one we need. Also, the lightweight battery, it’s not so easy to develop. And also the small engine with the big power. Everything is very difficult, but we try our best.”
Adrian Newey will hate Honda president Koji Watanabe’s 2026 engine update
Newey will be devastated to hear Watanabe admit that Honda are ‘struggling’ to develop an engine for F1’s new 2026 power unit regulations with Aston Martin becoming a works entry. It will have been the last thing Newey wanted given his concerns about the new regulations.
While a cynical mind could imply his claim is Newey covering his back in case Aston Martin’s 2026 car struggles with the finger of blame directed at Honda, the design legend has stated he fears F1’s new regulations will mirror 2014 when Mercedes aced the power unit changes.
“There has to be a big chance that it’s an engine formula at the start,” Newey recently told Auto Motor und Sport. “The reality is, I can’t remember another time in Formula 1 when both the chassis regulations and the engine regulations have changed simultaneously.
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“In this case, the chassis regulations have been very much written to try to compensate, let’s say, for the power unit regulations. So, it’s an extra dimension.
“I think engine manufacturers will have learned to an extent the lack of preparation the rivals of Mercedes did prior to that change. There has to be a chance that one manufacturer will come out well on top, and it will become a power-unit-dominated regulation.”
Ferrari and Renault were miles from Mercedes’ pace after the introduction of 1.6L V6 turbo-hybrid power units in 2014. The Silver Arrows won every drivers’ title from 2014 to 2020 and even won the constructors’ title from 2014 to 2021, before Red Bull and Honda took charge.
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