Why Aston Martin has no need to “make peace” with Honda

Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack has stated “there are no issues” between the team and engine supplier Honda, despite their troubled start to the 2026 Formula 1 season.

Aston Martin switched from a customer Mercedes engine supply to a works partnership with Honda for 2026, as it attempted to finally become a top team amid colossal investment by billionaire team owner Lawrence Stroll.

However, the decision has spectacularly backfired in F1’s new technical era, as the Adrian Newey-designed AMR26 lacks both performance and reliability, with the Honda engine generating vibrations which damaged battery after battery and sparked driver health concerns.

Last weekend was Honda’s home race at Suzuka, and Lawrence Stroll was seen shaking hands with Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe on the starting grid.

“Does this mean that peace has been made in Honda land?” Krack and HRC trackside general manager Shintaro Orihara were asked following the race, which elicited a laugh from the Luxembourger.

“There was no need to make peace, because we have a good relationship,” Krack then replied. “We came here, we know that this is the home race of our partner.

“We have a lot of respect for Honda and we have seen how much work went into the issues we are having. So, it was also a matter of respect for us to try everything we can to finish the race. We discussed that before, as we discussed over the week and over next week and so on.

“So, there is no need to make peace, because there are no issues.”

Mike Krack, Aston Martin F1 Team Chief Trackside Officer

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

The Japanese Grand Prix marked a clear improvement for Aston Martin-Honda, which officially finished a race for the first time with Fernando Alonso. But the two-time world champion was a lowly 18th, 30 seconds down on 17th-placed Sergio Perez and 70 seconds away from the last points-scoring position.

“As a team, you cannot destroy yourself,” Krack insisted. “We are in a difficult situation, we need to take the positives from the last three months. We went to Barcelona at the end of January and since then we have not done many laps. We have now managed to finish races, which in Formula 1 should be the norm, it should not be something that you have to celebrate.

“But we have to acknowledge that this is the situation we are in and we have to accept it and work ourselves out of it. Credit to everyone, the track side, Sakura, and also in Silverstone, how we persisted in getting these initial steps done.

“But unfortunately, as soon as you fix your reliability issues, everybody is just focusing on performance. And looking at that, we have seen that we have some major steps to take, not small steps that we have now done with reliability, but there are major steps to take. We have to use the break now to make the first step, but there is a big mountain to climb.

“Nobody is celebrating, but I think for the modest target that we have set ourselves, we have achieved a part of it.”