Honda’s much anticipated return to F1 in 2015 was an unmitigated disaster. The decision at McLaren to engage with the Japanese company was primarily driven by then team boss and owner Ron Dennis.
Dennis believed that McLaren could no longer win a World Championship as a customer team (using Mercedes-Benz engines) and needed to be a “works” (exclusive factory-backed) team again to control both the chassis and power unit design. The renewed partnership aimed to replicate McLaren and Honda’s dominant golden era from the late 1980s and early 1990s (with Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost).
The result was a complete failure as the partnership struggled with performance and reliability issues. McLaren eventually cut their ties with Honda at the end of the 2017 season. Ironically the Woking based team did go on to win two constructor titles and a drivers’ championship whilst being a Mercedes customer 2024/25.
From Red Bull Partnership to Aston Martin Reunion
Meanwhile Red Bull had also been at loggerheads with their engine manufacturer, Renault. They accused the French supplier of failing to invest properly in their V6 turbo hybrid and despite the four years of dominance from the pair 2010-13, relationships became severely broken. So in 2018, the parent company in Austria decided that their junior team, Toro Rosso, would sign with Honda who appeared to be making some progress.
The team and Honda performed as well as expected and for 2019, Red Bull finally ditched its 12 year long partnership with Renault and signed for Honda. Max Verstappen took three Grand Prix victories that season along with six other podiums as Red Bull and the partnership was ultimately set to go onto greater things.
Honda then announced they would be withdrawing from F1 in late 2020, but had agreed to continue to support Red Bull in developing their own power unit facility to manage the engines which would be frozen in terms of design alterations from 2022-2025. Of course a year later with engines still badged as Honda, Max Verstappen went on to win the drivers’ championship and Honda had a change of heart.
Honda offered to continue with Red Bull, but the Milton based team having had engine supply issues for nigh on a decade decided to continue going it alone. Aston Martin agreed a deal with Honda but in the intervening years much of Honda’s expertise in F1 engines was lost.
Early Struggles and Driver Friction
Come the start of this season, Aston Martin realised Honda were miles behind schedule and vibration issues were starting to cause the drivers physical injury. Reliability too was atrocious and some engineers who had been at McLaren in 2015,were suffering déjà vu.
Honda was deemed to be more than 4% down on engine power when compared to the best in field which surprisingly was Red Bull. This meant this season they would be awarded two engine upgrade opportunities and a further two for 2027.
The first upgrade was a seemingly uninspiring turbo revision introduced in Barcelona. The objective was to reduce turbo lag, but its overall gains on track remained modest according to Aston Martin’s drivers.
The second upgrade came in Zandvoort. This update featured a modified pre-chamber in the internal combustion engine,revised piston shape, and updated lubrication to cut friction. This combined with the B-Spec chassis introduced a week earlier in Hungary received significant criticism from Fernando Alonso. He reported severe issues with drivability, gear-shifting smoothness, and violent vibrations on the straights. “Everything we’d improved with the first engine; we’ve gone back a bit to square one with this second one, so we’ve got about two or three races ahead of us to optimise it,” said the Spaniard.
Tensions increased and in Singapore a radio message not broadcast by FOM featured Fernando Alonso laughing almost manically as he vented: “Energy. It’s so ridiculous this engine.” Alonso had started from the pit lane after fitting a sixth turbo charge which he insisted was broken.
Honda Chief Engineer Shintaro Orihara openly disputed this, stating the unit was healthy and changed purely as a precaution. Alonso bluntly fired back, telling the media that Honda was wrong and reiterating that the power unit was actively wasting energy.
The 2027 Roadmap and Historical Parallels
Honda have now issued a ‘road map’ for their future improvements coming in 2027. There will be an upgrade ready for the start of their season and one coming later on. Chief engineer Shintaro Orihara reveals: “But still, at round one, we can say we wouldn’t be a top competitor, so we need one more step.
“So, as Adrian [Newey] has said, our target is to take another big step in the middle of the season, let’s say maybe round eight [in Monaco]. That is our roadmap, and we are working based on that roadmap.”
Orihara admits combustion is Honda’s achilles heel and much of the focus for the development will be in this area. Adrian Newey also spoke about the development of their partnership between Honda and Aston Martin, recounting his experience when Honda first partnered with Red Bull in 2019.
“At the moment, in all truth, Honda are a little bit behind where Red Bull, as the works team, RBR, picked up Honda in ’19,” he said. “But that obviously was four seasons after they first came back in ’15. So, this is the first year back in.”
This surely begs the question as to whether Honda’s timeline for success will be similar to that of its return in 2015. Then it was in their fifth season where Honda won their first Grand Prix. If this were to be the case, then F1 will already be on to its next engine formula.
Lawrence Stroll after spending hundreds of millions of pounds on state of the art facilities at Silverstone, surely can’t wait for Honda to get its act together in five years time. However, there is some hope that the Aston Martin-Honda partnership will not struggle for as long as did McLaren-Honda.
Back in 2014 when the complex 1.6L V6 hybrid power units were introduced, the FIA wanted to prevent a runaway spending war and control costs. To do this, they divided the power unit into different areas and assigned a specific number of “tokens” to each area (totalling an initial 66 points of development).
Before each season, manufacturers were given a shrinking pool of tokens to spend on upgrades. However, crucially, large portions of the engine were “homologated” (frozen) ahead of time, meaning teams could not redesign major components mid-season or easily fix fundamental architectural mistakes.
The token system in fact baked in the advantage for the team which had nailed their first engine design in 2014 – like Mercedes. With Renault and Honda missing the mark, the token system severely limited how much they could change to catch up. The restrictions were so punishing that there was a huge backlash against the regulations. Realising the token system was stifling competition the FIA decided to scrap the system ahead of the 2017 season. So in reality, it took Honda just two years before winning its first race of the engine era with Red Bull in 2019 once the playing field had been levelled.
For many, Orihara’s comments about being a top competitor come the summer of 2027 seem laughable. Yet while he may be being optimistic, it’s not beyond reason that with Honda upgrades and Newey’s design genius, Aston Martin should be ahead of the mid-field by late next year.
Would you like to see more TJ13 Formula 1 coverage? Add us to your favourites list on Google to receive trusted F1 news.
The Judge, a nom de plume of an experienced F1 journalist and site founder with long-standing sources across the paddock. With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
With experience covering multiple seasons of Formula 1’s modern hybrid era, Andrew has developed a detailed understanding of how regulatory changes and competitive shifts influence the grid. Andrew’s editorial approach prioritises clarity and context, aiming to help readers navigate complex developments within the sport.
In addition to editorial duties, Andrew is particularly interested in how media narratives shape fan perception of Formula 1, and how reporting can balance speed with accuracy in an increasingly digital news environment.
