Have Honda Left Aston Martin Heartbroken?

Aston Martin hasn’t had it easy since they joined the F1 grid. Flashes of brilliance from the team haven’t lasted long. More often than not, we’ve seen them struggling towards the back of the midfield. Those results, or lack thereof, have never stopped Lawrence Stroll pushing for more from his team.

He’s ploughed money into a new factory to be built opposite Silverstone. Hired a two-time world champion as one of his drivers. And even managed to poach Adrian Newey to join the team and help design the car. There was one last piece that Stroll had his eye on, however: the engine.

Since joining the grid, Aston Martin has always been a customer team of Mercedes. They brought their engine from the Silver Arrows, and it wasn’t a poor bet. Mercedes has created some of the best engines on the grid. You only have to look at their dominance from 2014 and how the start of this season has gone for them. But when the 2026 engine regulations were announced, Aston Martin decided it no longer wanted to be a customer team.

Building your own Formula One engine can be a complex task. It requires a lot of money, space, and expertise. With that in mind, Aston Martin went into partnership with Honda.

Honda has been on and off the grid in Formula One for years. Most recently, the power behind Max Verstappen’s four championships. But when Red Bull parted ways with the company to create their own engine, Honda was left without a team to supply engines for.

Aston Martin decided to leap at the opportunity to go into business with the Japanese manufacturers. They would be the only team that Honda would be supplying engines to, essentially making them a works team. Even if Aston Martin weren’t building the engine.

It was a mark to show how serious AM was about its championship hopes. They wanted to go at it alone. Have more control over the engine, which meant more control over the car's design. So, there were murmurings of hope for the team. Hope that the pieces had finally come together to build a competitive car that could fight at the front of the field.

Then the cars hit the track for the first time in 2026, and it was clear to see that for now, those hopes were going to have to be put on hold. Aston Martin was having huge issues with its engine, and there wasn’t a quick fix.

The Honda engine is suffering from severe vibrations, causing huge limitations for Aston Martin. The vibrations have been so bad that the drivers have complained about the potential for damage to their hands. It’s meant the team has had to lower the amount of power they run to avoid injuries. The races earlier this season saw the driver retiring early, as running too long was causing damage to the rest of the car.

It’s been far from a dream start for the British racing team, and Honda is still trying to figure out the best way to fix the problem. What hasn’t helped is the blame game that’s being played by both sides. Honda blames Newey for late changes to the chassis design, whilst the team blame Honda for creating an engine that is down on horsepower and not having appropriate personnel working on the project.

It’s clear to see that the season’s fallen short of expectations. Whilst Honda keeps searching for a solution. Aston Martin is fighting to get both cars to the finish line in one piece. This isn’t the way they saw the start of the season going, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be getting better anytime soon. And hopefully, the relationship between the two companies hasn’t completely frayed.