Aston Martin's saviour? What to expect from Honda's new F1 engine

Honda has moved to downplay expectations surrounding its updated Formula 1 power unit that Aston Martin will run at the Dutch Grand Prix. 

As Honda and Aston Martin look to recover from a disastrous start to the 2026 season, the Japanese manufacturer is introducing a major engine upgrade at this weekend’s race at Zandvoort. 

It follows Aston Martin’s B-spec car debut that boosted the team’s competitiveness at the Hungarian Grand Prix before F1’s summer break. 

But Honda has stressed not to expect miracles from the updated power unit. 

“I can't explain how much gap we can reduce by this update. In Formula 1 we should be realistic, so we can't bring a magic update,” Honda trackside manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara said. 

“But we believe we bring some good steps by this update. Surely we have some gap to compete, but in Hungary, Aston Martin brings big update. 

“Every 50 milliseconds or 100 milliseconds is very important to improve our position, and I believe our update can bring that type of improvement on lap times.” 

Honda’s new engine made its track debut during a filming day in Hungary at the start of the summer break. Orihara confirmed the power unit ran without issues. 

"That is the first time to introduce a new spec engine on chassis side, and then we confirmed that power unit works as expected on the new chassis, that is a positive point,” he said. 

“We found some interesting data in terms of drivability. Then we bring back that data into our dyno, and we optimise our data setting for the Netherlands, so that was good progress for us.

“Another positive thing is we have completed all running plans without any issue, that is also a positive point for us.”

Honda does not expect to take any penalties this weekend as a result of the upgraded engine. It is also confident there will be no repeat of the vibration issues that plagued Aston Martin at the start of the campaign. 

The main focus for the weekend at Zandvoort will be optimising the drivability of the new engine as Honda looks to find more baseline power. 

“Our weak point is engine power,” Orihara explained. “So we focus to improve engine performance this time. We just focus to improve engine performance, especially combustion characteristics, and also reduce friction to get more performance.

“We haven't changed anything [on the] software side, the ERS side. But improved engine performance helps also deployment. So we will check how our deployment works with this engine.”

Asked if there will be further power unit updates before the end of the year, Orihara replied: "This is the only major update for this year.

"But if we find something, a good solution to improve our performance by a small modification, that can be on the table. But [the next] major update will be in 2027."