Aston Martin have made no secret of their strategy this season: 2025 is already taking a back seat as Lawrence Stroll’s team throws everything at Formula 1’s radical regulation overhaul for 2026. With sweeping changes to both power units and aerodynamics, the Silverstone-based outfit were among the first to pivot resources, a gamble that could make or break their push to join the front-running elite.
The Constructors’ table shows the immediate cost of that choice. McLaren dominate with 559 points, while Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull are jostling behind. Aston Martin sit sixth on 52 points, their focus clearly elsewhere. Yet their trump card for 2026 is formidable: Adrian Newey, freshly poached from Red Bull, is already sketching the team’s next-generation challenger, while Honda prepare an exclusive power unit deal.
Some observers have dismissed Aston’s prospects next year, insisting Honda are “behind the eight ball” in development. Tetsushi Kakuda, the overall leader of the F1 project at Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), told Autosport in the spring that they had reached a “considerable stage” with its engine project, and is continuing at a pace with its test bed operations as it seeks to firm up its combustion engine.
Honda admit engine finalisation on the limit
“We are aiming to submit the homologation in February next year – since we had a slightly late start, we want to push forward until the very last moment,” Kakuda said. “It’s difficult to say exactly what percentage of progress we have made, but I believe we have reached a considerable stage.”
This sounded alarm bells amongst F1 analysts, given that a more normative approach would be to exerciser a significant amount of time bench testing the finalised product and so Honda risk all kinds of reliability issues when the hit the track for the extended pre-season testing in 2026.
In his first outing in green at this year’s Monaco Grand Prix, Adrian Newey worryingly admitted there were big problems with the new state of the art facilities back at Silverstone. “I think it is fair to say that some of our tools are weak, particularly the driver in the loop simulator,” he told The Race. “It needs a lot of work because it’s not correlating at all at the moment, which is a fundamental research tool. Not having that is a limitation. But we’ve just got to work around it in the meantime and then sort out a plan to get it to where it needs to be. But that’s probably a two-year project in truth.”
F1 analyst backs Aston dream team
Again more bad news for the newest of Formula One’s married couple. But now F1 technical analysts, Matthew Somerfield, says those claims don’t match what he’s hearing. Speaking on the Missed Apex Podcast, Somerfield countered the rumours. “I would suggest Aston Martin with Honda will have a fairly good stab at the new regulations together,” he explained. “They’ve built a real technical powerhouse there. You’ve got Andy Cowell, ex-Mercedes, now at Aston, Honda’s resources, and of course Adrian Newey. That’s not the profile of a team destined to be left behind.”
The idea that Honda could flop in 2026 stems partly from its turbulent F1 history of repeatedly joining and then leaving F1, before coming back for another stab. But Somerfield points out that this is not the same organisation that stumbled when it last built engines on its own. Instead, Aston Martin and Honda have developed a highly integrated project, fortified by leaders like Cowell, who played a decisive role in Mercedes’ hybrid-era dominance, and by Newey, whose arrival has supercharged belief inside the factory.
“The rumour that they’re behind just doesn’t stack up with what I’m hearing,” Somerfield said. “They certainly seem like they’ll be in the mix, if not at the sharp end.”
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Drugovitch reveals “rocket” like pace of 2026 cars
Reserve and simulator driver, Felipe Druugovitch revealed during the summer break his latest experience in the Aston Martin simulated car for 2026. Speaking to Germany’s AMuS he described the experience: “The car pushes like crazy out of the corners. You feel like you’re sitting on a rocket. It’s really fun in the corners because the high electric component means there’s always power.”
The downside as Christian Horner prophesied in 2023 is that, “the sudden drop in power in the second half of the straight takes some getting used to.” This is due to the fact the hybrid systems for 2026 will produce 50% of the total power output and on circuits where braking is significantly reduced, there only way to replenish the charge is by lifting and coasting or dropping down a gear to increase the revs and therefore generate more electricity.
While Aston Martin and Ferrari are tipped to be competitive, Somerfield expects the real difficulties to fall on newcomers. Audi are entering with a clean-sheet power unit and the immense challenge of building up infrastructure from scratch. Meanwhile, Red Bull are banking on Red Bull Powertrains, a brand-new engine division partnered with Ford.
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Audi and Red Bull face the biggest challenge
“Just from a personnel and resources point of view, Audi and Red Bull-Ford face the steepest climb,” Somerfield noted. “Even though they’ve recruited talent from Mercedes and elsewhere, the challenge of overlapping current projects with a whole new power unit is enormous.”
Aston Martin’s approach reflects the wider reality of the sport under cost-cap conditions. Teams can no longer chase every marginal gain in the present while developing the future. Sacrifices must be made. For Aston, those sacrifices are visible now in their 2025 results—but the payoff could come as early as March 2026 in Melbourne.
Newey himself has warned that Aston are playing catch-up, yet few in the paddock are prepared to write them off. In modern F1, the engine is king, and if Honda deliver a strong unit—paired with Newey’s chassis vision—the green cars could become genuine threats.
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The Aston Martin guessing game
The 2026 engine supplier line-up confirms Aston Martin’s exclusive tie to Honda, while McLaren and Williams will all run Mercedes power. Ferrari supply their own works team, Haas, and newcomer Cadillac, while Audi will build their own, and Red Bull (with Racing Bulls) rely on their fledgling Ford-backed powertrains division.
With the most disruptive regulation reset in over a decade looming, Aston Martin’s timing might prove ideal. Ignore the whispers of Honda weakness, says Somerfield—the real story may be how far this partnership can go.
Coffee coasters not carbon discs – Brembo lifts the lid on F1 2026 brake shock
With the Formula One summer shutdown and the teams and drivers taking a break from their media duties, much of the focus of the F1 news cycle has been focused on the huge upcoming regulation changes for 2026. Most teams have completed the design cycle for any final upgrades which are to be added to this year’s racing machines, although some which are focused around mechanical grip and can be carried over to next year are yet to be complete.
Ferrari who have taken a step backwards from the performance their 2024 car had in the final quarter of the season have decided to plough on with further upgrades to the car in an effort to fix the suspension issues which have plagued Hamilton and Leclerc for most of the season. Having closed a gap of some 79 points to McLaren to just 14 over the final six race weekends, the Scuderia decided to build a completely new car design for 2026, despite it being the last year of the current set of car design regulations.
Adrian Newey observed that 2026 is a unique moment in F1 history given the design rules are changing not just for the power unit or the chassis, but for the first time both will be revolutionised at the same time. This has meant the teams have been forced to wait before designing significant elements of the new racing prototypes, with the rear axle and associated components playing a huge part in the harmonisation of power unit and chassis….. READ MORE
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