Honda wary of greater PU deficit at Austrian altitude

Honda has warned its Formula 1 power unit, used exclusively by Aston Martin, might be at a greater deficit to others due to the altitude at this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix.

The Red Bull Ring is located at around 700 meters/2,300 ft above sea level, making it the third-highest F1 track in terms of altitude behind Interlagos in Brazil and the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. Honda has struggled for competitiveness alongside Aston Martin so far this season, and its trackside engineering director Shintaro Orihara warns that could be emphasized in Austria.

“The Red Bull Ring is in the mountains, located at a high altitude,” Orihara said. “This means that the turbocharger is required to work harder compared to other races.

“When we had the MGU-H, we had an impact on the harvesting power at this circuit. However, as this component is no longer part of the 2026 regulations, we no longer have the MGU-H to assist the turbocharger, which may make it more challenging to operate both the turbocharger and the engine correctly at high altitude. The first thing we will do in FP1 is to check the behavior of both the turbocharger and the engine. Moreover, this week, we will expect high temperature at the track, so cooling will also be an important topic to factor in.

“Another characteristic of the circuit is its short layout. Despite its length, there are three fairly significant straights, and these are a demand on the power unit. The reality is that we may see a deficit here to other PU manufacturers, but we will adapt elements like our energy management strategy and drivability to maximize our package for the weekend.”

Aston Martin has already stated it will not be bringing improvements for its current car until at least the Belgian Grand Prix in July, with the team focusing on a major upgrade package given its struggles so far this season.

“Obviously it's not ideal when you start a set of regulations on the back foot, because everything takes time,” Fernando Alonso said in Barcelona. “Especially in our case, I think the power unit, we found very quickly that we were not up to speed,; and yes, it was a little bit immature, the project itself.

“So, we realized quickly that we would need time to catch up and we would need time to fix some of the issues. But in Formula 1 you race every two weeks and you need to deliver performance every two weeks. We understood quite quickly that we were not able to do that and it will be a tough start of the season.

“We are navigating through that tough start and we have higher hopes for the second part of the year. But until then, every weekend is a little bit more or less the same story.”