Last Updated on March 6 2026, 1:05 pm
Watching the greatest Formula One car designer in action on the media day before the 2026 season opener was indeed a sorry affair. Adrian Newey, who steered fledging team Red Bull to thirteen world titles in just nineteen seasons looks like a man who hasn’t slept in a month.
Newly stumbled through the team boss interview, his oration was stilted and stumbling, his eyes hollow and his answers whilst candid full of depressing news for Aston Martin fans.
There’s talk of significant vibrations in the Honda power unit which despite almost two weeks since the Bahrain test the Japanese manufacture have not solved and are unsure exactly of the source. Fernando Alonso was said to be able to manage theoretically just 25 laps before the oscillations became too much to bear.
Honda battery packs fail
Following FP1 on Friday in Melbourne, Lance Stroll was plumb last, almost 30 seconds off the pace, whilst the Spanish double world champion failed to complete a lap. Before the afternoon practice, Newey was again in front of the cameras explaining the team had brought four battery packs to Australia, but two of them were not ‘talking’ to the control unit.
There are no spare battery packs available and Honda is frantically trying to produce two more before the back to back weekend next time out in Japan. The consequences are dire should one of the packs fail in that Lance Stroll’s weekend in Melbourne will be over.
The appointment in November of Adrian Newey as team principal was surprising for the TJ13 crew, many of whom questioned the wisdom of this move by team owner Lawrence Stroll. Whilst the ex-Red Bull engineer is a genius from a technical point of view, the role of team principal was always potentially going to take him away from the coal face where he loves to be.
Media events, handling difficult questions are all part of the team boss’s duties, something Newey’s personality in not well suited to. Yet today it has come to light, that the ‘demotion’ of Andy Cowell from team boss to liaison officer with Honda – which saw Newey promoted – was more of necessity rather than a strategic decision of skill set deployment at Aston Martin.
New visits Honda base and discovers a disaster
Both Adrian Newey and Andy Cowell visited the Honda power unit site in Japan in November for a update, only to realise there was a disaster in the making. The 2026 powertrain was way behind schedule due to circumstances team owner Lawrence Stroll had failed to unearth when signing the works deal with Honda back in May 2023.
The Honda F1 engine programme was historically run as a separate division from the rest of the Japanese company’s motorsports activities and having declared they would be leaving Formula One at the end of 2021, many of their experienced engineers planned alternative futures.
In 2023 it was decided to reverse this decision to leave F1 and to ensure a more certain future to the Honda F1 engine programme which had previously been subject to the whims of executives in charge of the road car manufacturing, often affected by global financial headwinds, the F1 project was now incorporated into the Honda Racing Corporation division which was then reorganised.
HRC has always had a significant amount of autonomy from Honda HQ but its activities were primarily focused on motorcycle racing and North American motorsport such as Indycar. So the experience within HRC on how to build an F1 engine was limited and a host of new inexperienced engineers were recruited to the programme.
Newey’s design compromised? How Aston Martin and Honda got it so wrong
Honda brain drain created the current issues
Newey makes clear speaking to F1.com, “When they re-formed, a lot of the original group had, it now transpires, disbanded, gone to work on solar panels or whatever. So a lot of the group that reformed are actually fresh to Formula 1. They didn’t bring the experience that they (Honda F1) had had previously.
“Plus, when they came back in 2023, that was the first year of the budget cap introduction for engines. So all their rivals had been developing away through 21, 22 with continuity, their existing team, and free of the budget cap,” Newey reports miserably.
Of course many of the ex-Honda F1 engineers had been recruited by the likes of Red Bull racing who on hearing of Honda’s decision to leave F1 started an ambitious programme to become the first ever F1 customer team to build its own powertrain.
However, Aston Martin – which was ultimately the responsibility of owner Lawrence Stroll – should have done their due diligence on the capabilities of their new engine partner, which was clearly not the case. Having jumped from the Milton Keynes ship that was suffering an internal power struggle, Adrian Newey must feel the lack of Stroll’s attention to detail has left him where he was in 2014 with another struggling engine partner.
Mercedes relieved as Middle East stranded crew return
Newey promotion to team boss strange but understandable
Both Adrian Newey and Honda must be experiencing DeJa Vu from the last big power unit regulation change, when Red Bull Racing were stuck with a poorly developed Renault power unit which lacked power and reliability. Honda too joined the F1 V6 turbo revolution in 2015 and again a year later than their rivals lacked the experience and know how in how to go about building a competitive F1 engine.
Unlike in 2014 when Mercedes dominated the sport for years with their all conquering PU, the FIA have this time around included a catch up mechanism for manufacturers who are well behind the eight ball with their new powertrain designs. Yet this only kicks in after the first six rounds of the 2026 season, by which time Aston Martin-Honda will be right at the bottom of the pile.
Its now clear why Aston Martin made Adrian Newey the team boss on 26th November 2025, and it wasn’t because Andy Cowell was doing a bad job. Cowell was credited as masterminding the Mercedes uber dominant powertrain for 2014 and he has spent a significant time in Sakura in an effort to assist Honda in their hour of need.
What is clear is that Newey is not up to the job as Aston Martin team boss and his expertise is required at the drawing board and not in front of the camera. Maybe it won’t be long before the paddock rumour mill begins to circulate, that his old friend Christian Horner is joining Aston Martin to relieve Newey from his hour of despair.
NEXT ARTICLE: Formula 1 Cancels Pirelli Bahrain Test as Middle East Conflict Escalates: Grand Prix Races at Risk?
Pirelli cancels Bahrain F1 tyre test ‘for safety reasons’ – Pirelli has cancelled its scheduled two-day Formula 1 tyre test in Bahrain, citing a dramatic escalation of military conflict in the Middle East as the reason. The Italian supplier had been due to conduct wet-weather tyre testing on 28 February and again on Sunday at the Bahrain International Circuit.
However, just one week before the start of the new Formula 1 season in Melbourne, Pirelli confirmed that the event would not go ahead, citing ‘the worsening international situation for safety reasons’.
This decision highlights how quickly global events can impact even the most tightly organised sporting schedules….. continue reading
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13 and a career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media. Having trained in investigative journalism and contributed to several European sports outlets, Hunt brings rigour and polish to every article. His role is to sharpen analysis, check facts and ensure TJ13’s daily output meets the highest editorial standards.
