Honda's new engine an 'important milestone' in Aston Martin partnership

Honda has confirmed its new power unit will be ready for this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, calling it “an important milestone” in its partnership with Aston Martin.

This year’s regulations marked the start of Honda’s works deal with Aston Martin, but the project has been beset by issues from the beginning of 2026. The Aston Martin car was late and uncompetitive, while the Honda power unit was similarly underpowered, leaving the team at the back of the grid for most of the season so far.

Following a major update to the Aston Martin in Hungary – one that provided a big enough step forward for Fernando Alonso to reach Q2 for the first time and both cars to fight in the midfield – Honda will now have a new power unit at Zandvoort.

“The Dutch Grand Prix is an important milestone for Honda as this is where we introduce our new spec power unit,” Honda trackside general manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara said. “This is the result of an intense period of hard work at HRC Sakura together with HRC UK and the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team.

“Zandvoort is a Sprint weekend, which means we only have a single free practice session. This will bring an additional challenge to complete the evaluation of our new package in that limited running, but it’s a test we’re looking forward to.

“In Hungary, we saw a step forward with the new chassis. With the new specification power unit now introduced, we look forward to building on that progress together with the team over the remainder of the season.”

RACER understands Honda has focused on delivering incremental gains across a wide range of different components within the updated power unit, having been able to introduce developments courtesy of the Additional Upgrade and Development Opportunities (ADUO) mechanism this year.