Aston Martin's 2026 problems are so bad, F1 champion didn't believe them

Photo: © IMAGO

Aston Martin

Aston Martin's 2026 problems are so bad, F1 champion didn't believe them

Aston Martin have had a disastrous start to 2026 and their partnership with Honda

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 13 April 2026 10:55 Updated: 11:09

An F1 champion has admitted he thought Aston Martin had made up some of their problems heading into the 2026 season.

Aston Martin have suffered a dismal start to the year, only being able to finish one of the three grands prix so far, with Fernando Alonso's AMR26 limping home in 18th at the Japanese Grand Prix after Lance Stroll had retired from the race once again.

A mixture of poor power output from their Honda power unit and an underperforming chassis have meant that even when they have managed to finish a session, Aston Martin have been one of the slowest teams on the entire grid.

Article continues under video

And that's despite the fact that they were hoping to challenge for podiums and race victories this year, due to their new partnership with Honda and the arrival of design legend Adrian Newey.

Stroll and Alonso have been struggling with intense vibrations in their AMR26 too, which Alonso has admitted became 'too much' for him to bear at the Chinese GP, with both drivers previously warning Newey that they feared they would suffer 'permanent nerve damage' if they drove their new cars for too many consecutive laps.

After this shocking revelation emerged, 1996 world champion Damon Hill has admitted that heading into the season-opening Australian GP last month, he thought Aston Martin had 'concocted' some of their issues in order to hide the fact they weren't as competitive as they wanted to be.

Speaking on the Undercut podcast, Hill said: "When we went to Melbourne and it started to come out, there was a little bit of mixed messages coming out about what the state of play was with Honda and the power unit and the batteries and this vibration, well I think the vibrations have been proven to be correct but at one point I thought maybe this is a story that they’ve concocted to cover for the fact that they weren’t probably able to compete, the nerve damage story.

"Then Adrian comes out and suddenly says, 'oh no we’ve only got two batteries and one of them doesn’t work anymore' and I suddenly though, 'oh God, were you supposed to say that?' But it actually turns out to be all true, it’s doubly bad."

F1 HEADLINES: Aston Martin star handed dozen penalties, team swap put on hold

Can Aston Martin turn things around in 2026?

While Honda will be working hard during the current five-week break in the sport to try and get rid of some of the gremlins from their power unit design, it has also been revealed that Newey's car design is not without its flaws.

An F1 insider revealed that, even with a Mercedes power unit, Aston Martin's car would still only be challenging around the midfield with the likes of Alpine and Haas.

But claiming world championship points like those two teams would be a huge achievement for the Silverstone-based outfit given where they have started the 2026 season.

The Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) period coming up after the Monaco Grand Prix weekend could give Aston Martin a great chance to catch up to their rivals, with it being a safety net put in place at the start of the season by the FIA to help struggling power unit manufacturers.

Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

View full biography

F1 Aston Martin Adrian Newey Honda Damon Hill