F1 News: Honda achieve major goal as new data gives hope for Adrian Newey and Aston Martin

Shinataro Orihara looks on at an Aston Martin colleague — Photo: © IMAGO

Honda

Honda achieve major F1 goal as new data gives hope for Adrian Newey and Aston Martin

They ARE making progress

Graham Shaw Consultant Editor

Digital sports specialist running global brands for 30 years

Wednesday 16 September 2026 10:57

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Honda believe they have taken a major step forward in their bid to make Adrian Newey and Aston Martin great again.

The Japanese giant has been under fire for most of 2026 after delivering a power unit which left Newey's Aston Martin team at the back of the grid and floundering.

Newey admitted on the eve of the season opener in Melbourne that the engine produced vibrations so bad that drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll risked permanent nerve damage.

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At that stage just finishing a race was virtually impossible for Aston Martin - embarrassing for a team which had been expected to contend in 2026 after the marquee signing of design genius Newey.

Newey and Aston Martin have struggled so far in 2026.

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Painstaking progress for Honda

While Newey himself has been able to make major strides with the AMR's chassis in recent races - largely thanks to a massive upgrade package unveiled at the Hungarian Grand Prix - progress for Honda has been painstaking.

The first power unit upgrade was delivered for the Dutch Grand Prix, but it came with significant drivability issues reported by both Alonso and Stroll.

Now though, we are just over three weeks on from Zandvoort and Honda Racing's Chief Trackside Engineer Shinto Orihara is cautiously optimistic that things are now moving in the right direction.

Speaking after Sunday's Grand Prix - in which Stroll retired early and Alonso finished only P17 after sustaining damage in contact with Carlos Sainz - he issued a positive statement.

"Today’s result isn’t what we wanted, but we need to look at the learnings and improvement points that we can take forward to future races," he began.

"Over the past three races we’ve improved the drivability of our spec 2 power unit, which was introduced at the Dutch Grand Prix.

'We saw some good signs in the data'

"By reducing the driveability issue, we can now focus on the performance side. This weekend, for example, we changed some calibrations to improve this aspect and session-by-session we saw some good signs in the data.

"This shows us all that we are working in the right direction."

The update from Orihara comes as Newey and his team are preparing more chassis upgrades for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on September 26.

Those upgrades, per Newey, will focus on bringing down the weight of the AMR26 car and continuing to 'optimise the package'.