Honda sees reliability progress after Australia: “In China we will collect data to improve performance”. Honda engineering chief Shintaro Orihara reflects on Aston Martin’s difficult Australian GP.

Comments from Honda engineering chief Shintaro Orihara

Lance Stroll finished last, 15 laps behind race winner George Russell, while Fernando Alonso retired on lap 21 after already making an early pit stop on lap 14 before briefly returning to the track. From one perspective, the result of the Australian Grand Prix for Aston Martin could be considered better than expected. On the other hand, hearing about a “Grand Prix completed without reliability issues” sounds somewhat contradictory — especially when finishing 15 laps down is clearly far from what is normally associated with Formula 1.

Nevertheless, these were the comments from Honda engineering chief Shintaro Orihara at the end of the race held at the Melbourne circuit:

“In Melbourne we made another step in the right direction. We were able to confirm that the countermeasures adopted for our power unit worked under race conditions, as we completed the Grand Prix without reliability issues. If we compare our situation in Bahrain with our current position, the improvement has been significant.

This weekend was extremely important for us in order to verify the reliability of the battery. After the tests in Bahrain, Aston Martin and Honda worked closely together to find a solution to the battery vibration problems. As a single team, we worked tirelessly to identify and implement these countermeasures.

From our data we can see that the battery vibrations have continued to decrease, and we are now confident that we are on the right path to completing the full race distance. From this point of view, we are moving in the right direction and we must maintain this momentum. Every lap that we are able to complete is crucial for collecting data on our power unit, so the hard work and maximum effort will continue in the future.”

“Next week in China we are confident that we will be able to increase the battery mileage,” he added. “We will focus on completing laps and collecting data in order to improve our performance and optimize energy management.”

Shintaro Orihara’s assessment of the Australian GP confirms that Honda is currently prioritizing mechanical integrity over raw lap time as they battle the unique vibration harmonics of the 2026 power units. While Aston Martin’s finishing position in Melbourne was statistically poor, the fact that the battery survived the weekend suggests that the emergency countermeasures are working, clearing the way for a performance-focused data harvest during the upcoming Sprint weekend in China.