Fixing Aston Martin: Inside the plan to end Newey F1 nightmare

Photo: © IMAGO

Aston Martin

Fixing Aston Martin: Inside the plan to end Newey F1 nightmare

The team has had a nightmare start to 2026 as it heads for Melbourne

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Thursday 5 March 2026 09:05 Updated: 10:25

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It won't be easy, but one Honda F1 chief has detailed the process to fix Aston Martin amid Adrian Newey's nightmare.

Aston Martin were the stars of pre-season testing, albeit not for positive reasons. The Adrian Newey-led squad were forced to leave testing early after a Honda battery issue resulted in a limited run plan on the Friday, and were a stark four seconds off the pace on the other days.

Since then, the team has been feverishly working at both Silverstone and Sakura to get to the bottom of Aston Martin's issues ahead of the 2026 season opener.

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Despite those efforts we now have the Doomsday scenario of both cars failing to finish Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix, after Newey's shocking updates to media on Thursday.

He revealed that vibrations from the car's power unit have such an impact on his drivers, both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll fear permanent nerve damage.

Newey says Alonso feels he can only do a maximum of 25 consecutive laps in the car while Stroll's threshold is even lower at 15. Pretty grim when you are heading into a 58-lap race on Sunday.

Only one thing is for certain right now, that it is not a quick fix. While the reliability of the Honda power unit is a major concern, so to is its relationship to the Newey-designed AMR26, altogether forming a incompatible package between engine and aerodynamic design.

As terms such as the 107 per cent rule and ADUO are thrown around in relation to Aston Martin, one Honda chief has revealed their plans to solve their woes.

Honda chief: 'Aston Martin fix will take some time'

Speaking to Spanish publication AS, president of Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) Koji Watanabe provided a detailed breakdown of how they intend to fix their issues.

"We now know where we need to improve in terms of reliability and also in terms of power unit performance. Our priority is to close the gap in these two areas as much as possible. Race by race, we need to fine-tune and optimise," he said.

"Right now, our focus is on improving the reliability of the power unit. After that, we are working very hard with the team on drivability, where there is a lot we can do in terms of integrating the power unit into the AMR26."

When asked how long it would take Aston Martin to reach a competitive level, Watanabe responded: "We are prioritising the issues and trying to resolve them step by step. This will be an ongoing process that will take some time.

"We will treat each race at the start of the season as a way to learn about the power unit, its integration into the chassis and how we can optimise energy management."

F1 SCHEDULE: Every race date for 2026 plus TV details

F1 Aston Martin Adrian Newey Australian Grand Prix Honda