Honda ‘unhappy’ with its own F1 performance, not just reliability

Honda takes responsibility as Aston Martin’s F1 Bahrain pre-season test goes from bad to worse

Honda’s 2026 Formula 1 power unit lacks performance as well as reliability, the Japanese manufacturer has admitted.

Honda’s sole customer and de facto works team, Aston Martin, was slowest of all in the Bahrain pre-season test and completed much fewer laps than any other outfit – 334 in six days.

That is down to a number of technical issues, with an unspecified problem and a “data anomaly” holding the team back last week.

This week, a power unit issue kept the AMR26 in the garage for four hours on Wednesday, before Lance Stroll spun into the gravel due to what looked like a technical fault. A battery-related problem ended the team’s Thursday running early in the afternoon session, and it failed to return to action but for six intermittent laps on Friday.

Aston Martin’s fastest lap overall was a 1m35.974s by Stroll, which unfavourably compares to new team Cadillac’s 1m35.290s; all other outfits have reached 1m34.3s at worst. Aston is four seconds slower than Ferrari’s pacesetting benchmark, Charles Leclerc’s 1m31.992s.

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

If you’re wondering whether the Adrian Newey-designed AMR26’s lack of performance is down to aerodynamics or the engine, then Honda’s painfully honest admission makes it clear that its 2026-spec power unit is not up to par – regardless of the chassis’ unproven potential.

“Our main target during this week’s test was to build up mileage on the power unit, check the engine reliability and gather data,” Honda’s trackside general manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara stated in a press release. “We collected data successfully; however, we didn’t achieve the accumulated mileage that we were targeting.

“On Thursday, we identified an issue in the power unit, and all of us have been uniting efforts to find a solution during our last day of testing. Overnight and today, HRC Sakura, the AMRTC in Silverstone and our crews in Bahrain worked together on a limited run plan, which was jointly agreed considering a shortage of parts.

“It has been an enduring week, but we extend our thanks to the team for their support trackside and everyone working in Japan and the UK remotely. Overall, we are not happy with our performance and our reliability at the moment. However, we are all looking for solutions together in Sakura, Milton Keynes and Silverstone.”