Adrian Newey says the working relationship between Aston Martin and Honda has improved significantly after what he described as a “disastrous” beginning to their 2026 Formula 1 partnership. His comments, made during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend and circulated in recent days by several outlets including PlanetF1.com, mark a notably more positive tone after the severe problems that dominated the opening phase of the season.
The Aston Martin-Honda relationship is particularly important because the two sides must develop the chassis and power unit as a single package. Newey placed particular emphasis on the word “relationship” when discussing the progress made since the difficult opening races, an improvement that could prove increasingly important as Aston Martin and Honda attempt to recover from their troubled start.
Newey sees major progress in Aston Martin-Honda relationship
“From what can only be described as a disastrous start, the positive is that it has brought Honda and ourselves at AMR into a very close working relationship. We continue to develop that in every area, and I’m very happy with the progress we’re making from a relationship point of view. Normally, when relationships improve, performance improves as well.”
The final sentence is particularly striking when compared with what happened around five months earlier. During an extremely tense press conference at the season-opening Grand Prix, Newey sat alongside Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe and publicly placed much of the responsibility for Aston Martin’s unprecedented problems on the Japanese manufacturer.
Aston Martin’s extremely difficult start with Honda
The Honda power unit was identified as the primary source of a severe vibration problem. Those vibrations not only caused irreparable damage to the battery pack and other components, but were also said to pose a potential physical risk to the drivers if they completed more than 15 laps behind the wheel of the AMR26.
Newey also admitted that nobody at Silverstone had understood, before the end of November 2025, the extent to which Honda’s Formula 1 power-unit departments had lost experienced personnel or how far the programme had fallen behind its intended targets.
At the same time, Adrian Newey expressed confidence in Aston Martin’s chassis, suggesting that it could already operate near the front of the midfield and had considerable development potential over the remainder of the campaign.
The result was that much of the early responsibility appeared to fall on Honda. Koji Watanabe could offer no firm timetable for when the manufacturer would return to a competitive level and acknowledged with concern that the root cause of the vibration problem had not yet been fully identified.
Should Honda have carried all the blame?
However, reducing a vibration problem of this complexity to the responsibility of a single party is difficult. The internal combustion engine may be the original source of vibration, but the chassis side also has to ensure those frequencies are transmitted through the car without creating damaging resonance phenomena.
Likewise, admitting that Aston Martin had not fully understood Honda’s situation until the end of November raises questions, particularly with Adrian Newey now serving as team principal. Honda’s transfer of considerable know-how towards the emerging Red Bull Powertrains operation had been known, and there were reasons for Aston Martin to investigate closely how that transition had affected Honda’s resources.
There were also clear shortcomings on the chassis side. The original AMR26 was certainly not performing like a front-running midfield car, with weaknesses evident in several areas. Aston Martin’s subsequent major Budapest package produced a considerable improvement, with Juan Pablo Montoya going as far as describing the Hungary-spec machine as the first true Aston Martin to reflect Adrian Newey’s influence.
Honda and Aston Martin now need to move forward together
The improvement in relations between Aston Martin and Honda is therefore extremely important, and the fact that Newey himself has highlighted it carries additional significance. A relationship, however, always connects more than one party. It would be reasonable to hope that the calmer atmosphere has also been helped by some acknowledgement of responsibility on the British side of the partnership.
Few organisations respond well to being publicly singled out, and little can be gained from a technical partner through the kind of confrontational atmosphere seen in Melbourne. In a works Formula 1 partnership, responsibility ultimately has to be shared.
If Honda does introduce a major revision of its power unit at Zandvoort, the Japanese manufacturer would deserve recognition not only for its technical response but also for the professionalism with which it has continued working through a particularly difficult beginning. The 2026 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort will provide the next major opportunity to assess how far the Aston Martin-Honda project has progressed.
