F1 News: Honda confirm Aston Martin investigation after Monaco Grand Prix

Photo: © IMAGO

Aston Martin

Honda confirm Aston Martin investigation after F1 Monaco Grand Prix

Fernando Alonso scored the team's first point

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 9 June 2026 19:44

A key member of the Honda Racing team has confirmed that more tests need to be done, despite Aston Martin's best result of the 2026 F1 season at the Monaco Grand Prix.

After Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll qualified down in 21st and 22nd for the race on Saturday, F1 fans would have been forgiven for thinking 'here we go again', with Aston Martin right at the back of the pack despite being at a track where power disadvantages are often hidden.

But, two-time champion Alonso managed to come through the chaos during the race on Sunday to finish 12th on-track, Aston Martin's best result of the season so far.

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That would then become even better after the race, with Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez being handed penalties, promoting Alonso up into 10th and a first point of the season for Aston Martin. His point was also the first of the Honda-Aston Martin partnership which has struggled so desperately in 2026 so far, with Honda's power units proving to be unreliable and severely lacking power compared to their power unit rivals.

Alonso's team-mate Stroll, however, crashed out on the 60th lap of the race, heading straight into the barriers in an incident that he revealed was down to gremlins with his car, rather than being down to driver error or the breaking up track which was causing some concern for race stewards.

Now, Honda trackside general manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara has spoken about the bitter-sweet nature of the Monaco GP weekend.

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"Overnight and into this morning we had many discussions with the Aston Martin team to prepare for all eventualities at the Monaco Grand Prix," Orihara said in an Aston Martin debrief. "Today was about adapting to the different situations that arose.

"Much of it was about working extremely closely with the team to give the drivers the correct power unit options they needed during the race.

"P10 is the best result for us so far this year, but it's down to the special circumstances surrounding Monaco and this isn't representative of our PU performance. However, this position is reflective of the hard work that went into this weekend alongside the team and drivers."

However, Orihara went on to talk about Stroll's crash, confirming that investigations need to be undertaken to find out what exactly was wrong with the car.

"Unfortunately, Lance suffered a race-ending accident, which the team is investigating," he continued. "The drivers have experienced driveability issues all weekend, especially in the deceleration phase of the corners. We will continue to look into this with support from HRC Sakura."

F1 Aston Martin Adrian Newey Fernando Alonso Monaco Grand Prix Lance Stroll