Adrian Newey has confirmed Aston Martin leadership experienced an unexpected shock when visiting Honda in Sakura ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 season.
Aston Martin has experienced a nightmare start to the new season at the Australian Grand Prix, as Honda reliability issues continue to plague the team.
Managing only handful of laps in FP2 after both cars spent FP1 consigned to the garage, fixes from Honda to the extreme vibrations appeared to have worked.
But now facing a potential non-start after the revelation that Honda has just two batteries left for the rest of the weekend, the situation at Aston Martin is rapidly degrading.
Newey has outlined the severity of the problem at Honda, confirming most of the original team at the Japanese manufacturer responsible for so much success at Red Bull has departed.
“When they reformed a lot of the original group had, it now transpires, disbanded, gone to work on solar panels or whatever,” he revealed.
“So a lot of the group that reformed are actually fresh to Formula 1, they didn’t bring the experience that they 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 and ’22 with continuity the existing team and free of budget cap.
The Aston Martin Team Principal then confirmed that he and the rest of the leadership were not aware of the inexperience at Sakura until November 2025, despite signing a deal in 2023.
“No, we weren’t,” he said.
“We only really became aware of it kind of November of last year when we – Lawrence [Stroll], Andy Cowell and myself – went to Tokyo to discuss as rumours starting to suggest that their original target power they wouldn’t achieve for race one.
“Out of that came the fact that many of the original workforce had not returned when they restarted.”
Fernando Alonso takes aim at Honda
Detailing his challenging day in Melbourne, Alonso delivered a blunt assessment, and an equally blunt question to Honda over its battery issues.
“Obviously, we are still analysing the data of FP1,” he said.
“It didn’t feel much different, to be honest, than in Bahrain, and we didn’t complete too many laps because of the Honda issue in FP1, and [there were] some Honda issues as well in FP2.
“So, yeah, we still need to catch up a little on the weekend program. Hopefully, tomorrow we have a cleaner FP3.”
As to whether he was on a knife-edge to compete in the grand prix, Alonso replied: “We are okay to do it. It’s more a question for Honda, if they have stock.”
READ MORE: Adrian Newey admits Aston Martin is in ‘scary place’ ahead of possible F1 Australian GP non-start
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