2026 Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

[TyreSlip]

Thank you very much for your answers, Diffuser & TyreSlip. I didn’t understand the reason to switch back to the 'S' because I thought ALO would stick with 'M' until the end. It seemed like the best option to me.

Now I understand everything better. I don’t think ALO is upset about finishing behind Lance. I’m sure he’ll be very happy to see that both of them finally finished the race.

I had thought that after using the 'S' maybe he was disappointed with the performance of the 'M' and they were going for a final push. Or that it was something agreed with the team to compare/check something between him and Lance.

Now the only thing that worries me is what I said before: that tire degradation could get much worse if Honda finds the +50 kW they need. Or that on more demanding circuits for the engine (Hungaroring doesn’t seem like one to me) something similar could happen even if there isn’t such a big power increase.

You are welcome. Honestly, I think there is more to come from improved handling and tyre degradation. Alonso said after qualifying that if that was another practice session, they would have made another big setup change prior to qualifying. Still more to learn about optimising the car.

[TyreSlip]

They are raising the young engineers who are gaining confidence in how to develop the PU with this new sustainable fuel supplier. I won't speak badly about Aramco but the Saudi giant is facing its own challenges. I do know the situation would be different if they were working with ExxonMobil, but we are where we are.

You have claimed often that the Aramco biofuel is inferior to the ExxonMobil one. What is wrong with it and what information do you have to support this?

[diffuser]

People should stop repeating this nonsense. No-one from engine design came from Sakura to the UK.

Yep, those who left the Honda F1 program all went back into other Honda R&D projects in Japan.

The initial reports I read were that some wanted to stay in the sport so took offers from RBPT, also they had a facility in Milton Keynes too, so maybe no one did leave Sakura, but may have stayed in UK from MK.

They had no R&D in Milton Keys. Everything to develop and test PUs was in Sakura. So yeah all the people in Milton Keyes went to RBPT but none of them had access to IP or were R&D Honda.

[diffuser]

I'm was just saying Newey took responsibility for the rear suspension failure and referred the journalists to Honda regarding the ICE vibrations because Honda was handling that issue—not because he was trying to throw Honda under the bus.

Not every one takes the same diction the same way. Again, I said I think he was baited into it by the question.
a phrase that comes off as "you'd have to ask Honda about that" isn't the best way to say "we're working on solving the issues as a team" like Horner always said. He sounded like a broken record, but he kept to it.

One thing that does bother me about the Honda crew is their teamwear. I'm not a fan of how their teamwear creates a distinction of us vs them with the green team and the white team. It may sound silly, but a country like Japan holds the uniform as an important signifier. They should do like they did with RedBull and create a bespoke AMR Honda uniform like they did with Toro Rosso and RedBull. I'm not sure if Honda isn't allowed to use the Aston Martin Aramco logos on their personnel and who's decision it is to not or allow it, but it goes a long way in the mindset of the working team members. I think after some success, we'll see this happen.

See, you're the problem. You're upset that Newey pointed to Honda as being responsible for the vibration. You can take it that way, or you can take it the way I think it was meant.

The vibration is something Honda has taken responsibility for and is working on. They also like being interviewed by the press so journalists can get quotes from Honda personnel, put Honda in a positive light, and show the Honda logo, which is good for advertising.

I mean, there was a vibration, but it wasn't really that bad like it had been before, it didn't interfere with what they had planned to do in the FPs and they fixed it, so I don't see what the big deal is. Newey might have even known they were close to fixing it.

[diffuser]

dont wanna sound tin foil hat but is there any other excuse to run that strategy except to help lance run closer to alonso? honest question. not that it matters points wise, but alonso wasnt too happy about it. they ran so long on the softs that lance deleted a 15 second deficit in 10 laps

Everyone can see this... this has been going on for a while regardless of the strategy team. I remember Vettel fans creating memes in 2023 about the fkd up strategies.

The strategy was perfect. They were not going to finish any higher than they did, no matter what they tried.

Stroll finished more than 10 seconds behind Gasly and was lapping around two seconds per lap slower. His tires almost completely fell off a cliff. His final laps were very erratic (1:26.4, 1:25.4, 1:25.4, 1:25.1, 1:27.5, 1:25.4, 1:26.9, 1:25.4), so he was obviously struggling with tire degradation.

If you don't pit Alonso on Lap 35, when do you pit him?

If they pit him on Lap 25, he comes out in 18th, stuck in traffic behind Ocon on 7-lap-old hard tires and Colapinto on 9-lap-old hards. They're lapping in the low-to-mid 1:27s, while Alonso is only managing mid-to-high 1:27s. At least before the stop, Alonso is in clean air.

Once Alonso's 1st set of soft tires go beyond 30 laps, his pace drops into the low 1:28s. So what do you do? If you pit on Lap 25, you're going to rejoin behind traffic without having a significant tire advantage. That means you're not passing anyone—you'll just get stuck in the train.

Instead, Aston Martin pits Alonso on Lap 35. Ocon pits on Lap 37, so Alonso doesn't even have to pass him. That leaves Sainz (18-lap-old mediums) and Colapinto (21-lap-old hards). Alonso passes Sainz on Lap 38 while on 2-lap-old medium tires. Then Colapinto and Stroll pit on Lap 39, putting Alonso back into clean air, chasing Gasly, who is 28 seconds up the road on 22-lap-old hard tires. That's pretty sweet.

Then the VSP happens, it starts ending after Alonso had already start into the pitlane entry. His only choices would have been to keep going and not stop, which isn't smart or stop and put new boots. If you look at the data Stroll is .5 seconds behind Alonso Before the VSP. After the VSP Alonso is 15 seconds behind. So a pit stop in Hungary is normally 20.5 seconds, 10 seconds under a VSP. So Alonso saved half the time between a regular pit stop and a VSP pit stop.

Sometimes things just happen, maybe next time the same scenario happens Stroll looses the car completely allowing Alonso to pass him. It's happened before. You do your best some times you make all the right decisions and it doesn't work out for you. There are a ton of things going on that are out side you're garages control.

[Otromundo]

I’m really happy. I’ve reviewed several race videos. The car, at least on this track, has improved a lot in terms of handling. It seems to have a small issue with slow corners. But it has good grip and takes care of the tires really well. The latter is much more important than finding the setup for slow corners.

We’ll see it at Zandvoort. I guess we’ll still get overtaken on the straights. I’m not too worried about that right now because it’s logical: we lack power. I’m far more interested in seeing what happens in the corners, some of which are very unique.

I also trust Honda. In motorcycles, I’m more of a Kawasaki fan. But I’ll admit that Honda has made all kinds of engines; they know what they’re doing. Now it seems they’re working as a team with AMR, and that’s the best news because it’s exactly what we need right now.

So far, things have been done too quickly. I hope we forget that soon.

[FNTC]

https://honda.racing/f1/post/f1-2026-rd11-race

Adrian Newey ー
Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team

It's clear we've taken a very encouraging first step forward with the upgrade, and the progress made is a huge credit to the hard work of the entire team at Silverstone. The other positive is that performance was in line with our data predictions, showing good correlation between our updated simulation tools and the track. This is a strong indication we are on the right development path for the short and longer term. With valuable learnings gathered today, we now have a solid baseline to build on when we return from the summer break, with further upgrades planned for Zandvoort.

Shintaro Orihara ー
Honda

In Hungary, we have been supporting the team with the power unit integration. We’ve also been able to collect vital data, which will help us come the next race. We will now take the important step of introducing our new-spec power unit in the Netherlands.

Before then, during Wednesday’s filming day, we will run the new engine in the AMR26 for the first time, before the summer shutdown commences.

[mzso]

Posts like the one a couple of posts above are why Honda fans who've come to Aston Martin Honda, are touchy about things that Aston Martin fans who've come to Aston Martin Honda (yes, this is a new partnership), say. There's quite an undercurrent of when the car goes well, it's because of the great chassis in spite of terrible Honda, and when it goes badly, it's because terrible Honda are so bad all is lost. It's even been said no chassis development could realistically be done whilst the engine was so bad (so how about all the current updates?). Of course the engine is very poor, and yes it is a concern because engine development and lead-times are long (and updates can only be made when permission is granted). But, the chassis was very poor too, the drivers have been complaining, and the team even said approximately half the deficit comes from the chassis, but these facts are glossed over or often not even mentioned at all. The team has a works engine deal, with the company that powered four drivers championships, which were the only ones the Mercedes didn't win in the turbo hybrid engine era. Nothing is ever guaranteed, but don't underestimate Honda. How about wishing them well, and seeing how it goes?

These people are impatient and don't appreciate the process Honda goes through to achieve success, which usually starts with failure. Hence why I no longer translate or bring new information. I'm looking forward to a talk by former Honda Managing Director Masashi Yamamoto, who was the Honda consultant for RBPT, on the latest Honda F1 developments. He is going to have some interesting things to say, always does.

Failing is not a process. It's a lack of one. A result of a defect in their attitudes.They didn't respect the task near enough.

[avada]

Zandvoort will be interesting. Considering most teams will be bringing upgrades for the track. Still wonder is the extra weight reduction with the engine upgrade dimensions changing?

It should bring some, with the vibration dampening now (hopefully) not needed.

[bigblue]

Failing is not a process. It's a lack of one. A result of a defect in their attitudes.They didn't respect the task near enough.

I was going to post a follow-up to my previous post, and this has prompted me to get on with it. I think the engineering is fantastic once they get going. However, the management and organisation of the programs are pretty shambolic, at least initially. Pulling out, then kinda pulling out, allowing the engineering team to be dispersed, doing a skeleton team tracking the regs, persuading the company to get a program going, then gradually getting some of the team back, and missing a very large portion of free development time is a pretty crazy way to do things. I think the engineers must be ecstatic they've got a F1 program at all, given the company stance, but these are the consequences. There's no momentum or continuity. Training your best upcoming engineers on the program is fine, if they're working alongside a good number of their seasoned colleagues. Really this is a fight between the bean-counters and the racing arm. There's nothing "samurai" or mystical about shooting, sorry katana-ing, yourself in the foot. The crumb of comfort is that HRC seem to have organised themselves to be a somewhat more recognised and independent division in Honda, I think to help counteract the madness from the top-level management of the company. Of course ultimately if the company really decides to pull out again, HRC would have to comply, but I think they will attempt to run their operations in a bit more of a considered way with this change. At least that's my guess. Not much has been written about this, so ultimately it's anyone's guess if it works or not, or if this conjecture on my part is even accurate.

But remember, Aston still have a works deal, and are not beholden to Mercedes. This is a massive plus point.