General
Honda in trouble? Why concerns about '26 could be expected
- Ludo van Denderen
Koji Watanabe was extraordinarily honest. Honda Racing Corporation's top executive admitted that his company were struggling to produce a fast and reliable power unit for the 2026 season and beyond as the new set of regulations await. Yet that was to be expected, is the conclusion that can already be drawn.
Honda are set for another year as Red Bull Racing's power unit suppliers, but the Japanese are already looking at what's to come as well. Next season, Honda will work together with Aston Martin, as the Britons hope the Japanese brand can have as much of an impact on their results as they had on Red Bull's in recent years.
Yet, that is by no means a certainty. "We are struggling. Now we are trying our best to show the result next year," the Honda chief explained to Planet F1 what makes development so difficult. "Everything is new. The motor is a new 355-kW, very compact one we need. Also the lightweight battery, it’s not so easy to develop. And also the small engine with the big power."
Will Honda be there from day one?
In other words: The Japanese underlined that by no means they believe that Honda will have the best power unit in Formula 1 from the first day of the 2026 season, and with his words, Watanabe is already managing expectations. Yet for insiders, this should come as no surprise. After all, Honda had a huge amount of catching up to do in recent years.
The company announced they would withdraw as an engine supplier fromm Formula 1 in 2020. But the Japanese reversed that decision after Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing started winning races and championships a year later. One small problem: by then, the brightest minds in the engine department had found jobs with other employers.
As a result, HRC's engine division had to be built up again virtually from scratch. This had to be done with more inexperienced people, because as a company in Japan, it is not easy to attract staff away from, say, Ferrari or Mercedes. Meanwhile, Honda are said to have got the organisation back on track quite nicely, although they have fallen behind the competition.
McLaren have proven themselves in the past
In the past, Honda could already show their ability to turn a deficit (see the McLaren era) into an advantage. There is one setback with the current generation of engines, however: they can hardly be modified in the years after 2026. A team with a less powerful internal combustion engine will probably have to get used to having one for a while.
In any case, Honda still have a year to go before the first Honda-powered Aston Martin F1 car hits the track. Besides, of course, the Japanese also don't know how they compare against their rivals at this point.
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