Miami marked a potentially decisive moment in the growing technical partnership between Aston Martin and Honda, with the first tangible signs that the collaboration may finally be moving in the right direction.
After a difficult start to the 2026 Formula 1 season, plagued by major reliability concerns, the Silverstone-based team managed to get both AMR26 cars to the finish line in Florida. The breakthrough came thanks to an unusual but effective engineering decision: leaving one of the cars in Japan so Honda engineers could work directly on the chassis at the Sakura research and development facility.
The decision not to introduce aerodynamic upgrades during the Miami weekend was intentional, as Aston Martin wanted to eliminate as many technical variables as possible. The British outfit needed clean back-to-back comparisons to validate the countermeasures introduced to solve the vibration issues that had affected the Power Unit since pre-season testing.
The improvements were visible in both the Sprint and the Grand Prix, where Fernando Alonso was able to fight competitively and finish ahead of Sergio Perez’s Cadillac, reinforcing the belief that Aston Martin may finally have found the right direction in its recovery effort.
The solution to the vibrations: leaving an AMR26 with Honda engineers
The root of the problem lay in a discrepancy between bench testing and real-world track operation. HRC president Koji Watanabe had previously confirmed that the vibration issue had never appeared during dyno testing. It was only once the power unit was integrated into Aston Martin’s chassis that harmonic resonance became a critical concern, threatening component durability and overall reliability.
That led to the unusual decision to send a complete car to the factory for extensive static and dynamic analysis, allowing Honda’s specialists to study how the vibrations were being transmitted throughout the entire structure of the car.
Mike Krack, Team Principal of the British team, explained the reasoning behind the joint effort:
“We are happy with the result, and I believe our partner wants to push even further. We left one of the cars in Sakura for some bench testing. Honda is a huge company and has extensive expertise in analysing these kinds of phenomena, far beyond what a racing team can typically do. Being able to leave a car there helped us mitigate some of the issues we had been experiencing.”
This made it possible to work simultaneously on both the chassis interfaces and the mechanical origin of the vibrations.
From reliability to performance: Honda’s next target
The work carried out between the Japanese Grand Prix and Miami allowed Aston Martin to complete the full race distance in Florida without significant technical setbacks.
Shintaro Orihara, one of Honda’s leading engineers on the Formula 1 project, confirmed that the adopted solution had delivered the expected results: “The vibrations were caused by energy being transferred from the chassis side to the Power Unit. We needed countermeasures from both sides, but we combined them into a single solution that is working very well.”
Positive feedback from the drivers suggests the emergency phase has now passed, allowing the engineers to begin exploring the true performance potential of the power unit.
A major talking point in Miami was energy management, particularly the regulation surrounding superclipping, whose peak power limit has been increased from 250 to 350kW. Despite doubts over whether Honda’s power unit would be capable of reaching those figures consistently, on-track performance appears to have answered those questions.
Now that baseline reliability has been established, attention turns to software optimisation and drivability improvements: “There is still a lot of room to improve our Power Unit, but that is the next step for us,” Orihara pointed out, suggesting that the data collected in Florida’s hot and humid conditions will prove crucial in refining energy recovery strategies.
Fernando Alonso already looking ahead to 2027
Despite Aston Martin’s difficult beginning to 2026, Fernando Alonso has shown no signs of losing faith in the Aston Martin-Honda project.
The Spanish driver, who will turn 45 in July, appears to accept that the first season of such a technically ambitious partnership inevitably comes with a steep learning curve. However, his focus is already firmly on the second year of the collaboration.
Building mileage and gathering data—something Aston Martin struggled to achieve in the opening phase of the season—has now become essential if the team is to close the gap to Formula 1’s front-runners: “I have no doubt that we will be in a stronger position next year. If not, it would mean we are going backwards.”
That long-term vision is shared by Aston Martin’s leadership, who reportedly see 2027 as the true benchmark for their championship ambitions. Fernando Alonso acknowledged how difficult the current phase has been, describing it as the toughest period of the year, but remains convinced that progress is coming:
“I am quite sure that we will improve more and more throughout this season as upgrades arrive. Next year, in the second year of the project, we will be far better prepared than we were in the first.”
Comments that strongly suggest retirement is not currently part of Fernando Alonso’s short-term thinking.
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