Aston Martin F1 hit by new bombshell as insider reveals shocking truth

Photo: © IMAGO

Aston Martin

Aston Martin hit by new bombshell as insider reveals shocking truth

Aston Martin have a long road ahead of them to fix 2026 gremlins

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Tuesday 10 March 2026 08:27

Make us your Google favorite

An Aston Martin F1 insider has dropped a new bombshell on their 2026 woes and what Honda need to achieve going forwards.

Sunday's Australian Grand Prix confirmed the worst for Aston Martin, with star driver Fernando Alonso retiring, not once, but twice in the same race.

After an encouraging start on lap one, the reliability of Alonso's machinery failed him and he retired the car on lap 14. Alonso then returned to the race briefly to compensate for missed mileage and completed a total of 21 laps of the Australian Grand Prix.

Article continues under video

Team principal Adrian Newey had warned this would be the case in Melbourne, with vibrations in the Aston Martin enough to cause permanent nerve damage for both Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Newey reflected on the Australian GP as a 'learning opportunity' for Aston Martin and stated that the data will help them going into Shanghai. Honda also revealed they are 'confident' they can build up more mileage on the battery in China, and that their vibrations have continued to decrease.

F1 2026 Regulations: Every new rule and car change explained

Aston Martin insider tells all

Aston Martin insider and ambassador, Pedro de la Rosa, also spoke to DAZN Spain in Melbourne, where he revealed the extent of Aston Martin's issues and how close they are to being solved.

The former F1 driver said: "It’s a long process because first you have to achieve reliability, and then improve performance. And also improve performance beyond small software tweaks to make the energy recovery and deployment, the power delivery, work a bit better."

He also revealed the bombshell decision that Honda will have to change their entire design, and implied this would be a long process.

"Honda will have to change their design. So, setting a date for this is totally a shot in the dark," the Spaniard continued.

"We’ll have to see what solutions Honda finds and when they can implement them. But I repeat, you won’t see changes from one race to the next; this is a medium-term process."

F1 Aston Martin Honda Pedro De La Rosa