The Australian Grand Prix is shaping up to be a challenging weekend for Aston Martin and Honda, with both teams facing significant reliability problems that will restrict practice mileage. The chances of even seeing the checkered flag are slim for Fernando Alonso, who had hoped to celebrate his 25th anniversary of his grand prix debut in style.
Aston Martin's winter testing was a disaster, with the team completing only a third of the laps of its rivals in Bahrain. This is significant, as Aston is the only Honda runner, while Mercedes captured valuable data with four cars, Ferrari with three, and Red Bull Ford with two. The lack of power and slow speed were major issues, with the team unable to complete routine homework and box ticking.
The Aston Martin-Honda relationship was touted as a match made in heaven, with the power unit supplier that had won the last four World Championships allied to the team with modern facilities. However, it appears that Honda has dropped the ball, with an overall lack of power and a high level of vibration causing battery failures. This vibration was seen on the dyno in Japan and again in virtual test track running.
Honda's struggles are reminiscent of its dire time when it returned to F1 in 2015 with its first hybrid V-6 engine, which could barely string a lap together. The team had to create a power unit from scratch and a new facility, but by 2019, it was winning races. So why is it struggling again, having just won four titles?
In 2020, Honda announced that it was leaving F1 to redistribute resources to wider electrification projects, with Red Bull persuading the team to stay on as a customer supplier. Given the development freeze under regulations, the design team broke up, and most of the original engineers were dispersed to production areas.
The lack of running means that Aston Martin knows little about its new AMR26 car, which has been pushed to its limits by Adrian Newey's packaging requirements. The team is now relying on a system called Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities to bring extra upgrades based on performance discrepancies with rivals.
Honda is working flat out to resolve the issues seen in testing, but these things can't be done in a matter of weeks. The team must submit a homologation dossier to the FIA before March 1, which will add pressure to their efforts.
With reliability issues and limited practice mileage, Aston Martin and Honda face a daunting task to overcome their struggles in the upcoming Australian Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso's hopes of having a winning car in what he's hinted could be his final season are looking increasingly bleak.
The timing is also key, with Honda lagging behind rivals who had already completed significant work on their projects before committing to the 2026 power unit rules. The team must act quickly to resolve its issues and bring some form of fix, but this will require a significant investment of time and resources.
With reliability issues and limited practice mileage, Aston Martin and Honda face a daunting task to overcome their struggles in the upcoming Australian Grand Prix.
