Honda debuted a new engine at Zandvoort, but the Japanese manufacturer still has room for improvement ahead of the Italian GP at Monza this weekend.
Honda chief engineer Shintaro Orihara said that their ‘key focus’ is on improving drivability of the AMR26. On the first outing for the new engine, Fernando Alonso secured Aston Martin’s best finish of the 2026 season and brought home two points with a P9 result. However, the Spaniard was not convinced of the drivability of the fresh Honda engine.
Speaking to media, Alonso said it was still a ‘challenging’ weekend in Zandvoort.
“I don’t think we can be black and white on if we have more power or not from the driver side of things.
“On the driveability, it has been a difficult weekend. We’re struggling with the downshift again and we’re struggling with the engine braking corner to corner, so it was a challenging weekend in that regard.
“We’ll have to wait a bit longer with the engine,” he added.
“I don’t think this weekend has yielded the result we were hoping for. We don’t have that handling, that gear-shifting feel. 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.”
Honda has put in the work between Zandvoort and Monza
Orihara assured that Honda’s ‘key focus’ has been on improving drivability for Monza, a circuit that will expose the strengths and weaknesses of all power units up and down the grid.
“Monza is a unique circuit with one of the highest full-throttle ratios on the 2026 calendar, with its long straights and only 11 corners,” Orihara said via Honda’s social media.
“At this track, how you distribute the limited energy across these sections becomes crucial.
“Our key focus at the Italian Grand Prix is to improve driveability.
“Since the Dutch Grand Prix, we have been working a lot on the dyno at HRC Sakura to improve this and, specifically, to achieve stable and consistent combustion control.”
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