Honda has blamed its absence from the grid for its appalling start to the 2026 Formula 1 championship campaign with Aston Martin.
Continuing to be open about its challenges in 2026, Honda is urgently seeking to right a disastrous opening two races into its F1 return.
Honda has further pressure heaped on it this weekend as F1 arrives at Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix, its home race, with an expectant crowd hoping for signs of a turnaround.
This looks unlikely, the Honda power unit still suffering from extreme vibrations and poor reliability, the beleaguered manufacturer still unable to complete a race distance.
President of Honda Racing Corporation Koji Watanabe has now publicly identified the reasons behind its dismal campaign, outlining Honda’s struggles.
“Well, we are starting a new season with Aston Martin Aramco and, as you know, we are struggling in on-track performance at this moment,” he said to media, including Motorsport Week.
“I believe that there are several reasons . The first one is that, yes, of course, the new power regulation is quite challenging for us”.
“Limited” F1 activity to blame for Honda?
Watanabe then revealed what he believes is the predominant factor behind Honda’s nadir in 2026: its absence from the grid and lack of retention of those who took the manufacturer to previous title glories.
The second one is that we stopped the Formula 1 activities at the end of 2021 and announced to return to Formula 1 in 2023, so there is some period that during that period our Formula 1 activity was quite limited,” he said.
“It also took a bit of time for us to rebuild the organization to restart Formula 1 development. But now we are working closely with Aston Martin Aramco, not only technical area but also overall area, how we can build a strong partnership together with them.
“So, Aston Martin Aramco and Honda is not only just F1 constructor and power manufacturer, but also, we are working closely as one team. Actually, in our facility in Japan, the engineers from Aston Martin Aramco are really working hard closely with our engineers in Sakura, working together. So, I think most important is that we can keep moving forward step by step.
“At this moment we are focused on how we can improve the situation of vibration, mainly damage to battery area, but also this time for Suzuka we have improved energy management situation for more driving performance.
“We have some recovery plan together with Aston Martin, but we cannot tell that today.”
Honda’s honesty is becoming a trademark in 2026, but it does little to improve the on-track performance, which will likely to take months to get out of.
The goal in the immediate future is to work through the raft of problems it faces with Aston Martin, but the other teams will move further and faster.
A way out of this nightmare will come, but heading into its home weekend, Honda will be braced for humiliation.
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