Honda has urged Aston Martin not to expect too much from the updated Formula 1 power unit that will be used at the Dutch Grand Prix. The new engine comes after a disastrous start to the 2026 season for both parties, and is hoped to be their saviour.
The major powertrain upgrade follows Aston Martin's B-spec car debut, which boosted their competitiveness at the Hungarian Grand Prix before the summer break. However, Honda has stressed that this is not a magic solution.
"I can't explain how much gap we can reduce by this update. In Formula 1 we should be realistic, so we can't bring a magic update," said Honda trackside manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara. "But we believe we bring some good steps. Every 50 milliseconds or 100 milliseconds is very important to improve our position, and I believe our update can bring that type of improvement on lap times."
The new Honda engine made its track debut during a filming day in Hungary at the start of the summer break. Orihara confirmed it ran without issues. "This is the first time to introduce a new spec engine on the chassis side, and we confirmed that the power unit works as expected, that is a positive point," he said. "We found some interesting data in terms of drivability, then we brought that back to our dyno and optimised our settings for the Netherlands."
Honda does not expect to take any penalties this weekend as a result of the upgrade. They are also confident there will be no repeat of the vibration issues that plagued Aston Martin at the start of the campaign. The main focus at Zandvoort will be optimising drivability while finding more baseline power.
"Our weak point is engine power," Orihara explained. "So we focus to improve engine performance this time, especially combustion characteristics and reduce friction. We haven't changed anything on the software or ERS side, but improved engine performance helps deployment. We will check how deployment works with this engine."
Orihara confirmed this is the only major update for this year. "If we find a good solution by a small modification, that can be on the table. But the next major update will be in 2027," he concluded.
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