Here is a recent article/interview of HRC President Koji Watanabe on 06.14.2026 from Japan’s Autosport Web:
https://www.as-web.jp/f1/1325833
It will require translating to English but in a nutshell, Watanabe details their current situation at AMR/Honda and goes into why they are on the backfoot. The lack of continuity back in 2022-23 at Sakura when Honda decided to “return” to F1 showed how they essentially performed a hard reset with their research and development.
A small excerpt:
President Watanabe: "It is true that the new regulation was very complicated and difficult, but at the time when the new regulation was introduced, we teamed up with a new team and new fuel and I think it was a pretty high hurdle to return to F1 with new oil. In March 2022, when the 4th term of F1 activities ended and the power unit that was homorized to Red Bull and Alpha Tauri was handed over, HRC engineers from HRC Sakura to Honda Motor Corporation and Honda Technology Research Institute at their headquarters. I went back to the research institute. From there, for about a year until May 2023, when it announced that it would conclude a partnership with Aston Martin, Sakura continued only basic research and element research with a very small number of people. The delay between them was quite big. So I think it will take a little more time to reorganize the system.”
Apologies for any poor web translations.
