F1, Honda's new course with Aston Martin between initial obstacles and future ambitions

Honda's sporting prowess cannot be questioned. The Japanese manufacturer holds the record as the most successful team in Moto GP with 21 rider's world titles and 25 manufacturer's titles. From its debut in the late 1950s at the Tourist Trophy on the Isle of Man, the first world title came in 1961 in the 125 class, and then went on to absolute domination in both the premier class and the smaller categories. And even in Formula 1, Soichiro Honda's team wrote historic pages.

Entering the Circus for the first time in 1964, it won its first victory as early as the following season and participated in the Constructors' Championship until 1968. After an absence of fifteen years, Honda re-entered Formula One in 1983 and remained there until 1992 as engine supplier, first for Spirit, then Williams and finally McLaren. In those years it collected memorable triumphs: with Williams it won the constructors' title in 1986 and 1987, while with McLaren it dominated for four consecutive seasons (1988-1991). In addition to the Constructors' Championships, the Japanese manufacturer boasts the Drivers' Titles of Nelson Piquet (Williams, 1987), Alain Prost (McLaren, 1989) and Ayrton Senna (McLaren, 1989, 1990 and 1991).

For five seasons, starting in 2002, Honda powered BAR and Jordan without being able to replicate the glories of the late 1980s and early 1990s. From 2006, it returned to the championship as a manufacturer after the takeover of BAR, scoring three podiums including Jenson Button's win at the Hungarian Grand Prix; in consecutive seasons, however, it did not record any notable results apart from Rubens Barrichello's podium finish in Great Britain. Honda ended the 2008 season with only 14 points and in last place in the standings.

He then returned as McLaren's engine supplier from 2015 to 2017, in a parenthesis that was unfulfilling, before moving from 2018 to 2021 to supply the Faenza-based team (Toro Rosso, then AlphaTauri) and, from 2019, Red Bull as well. At the side of the Austrian team, Honda found its way back to victory, taking 45 podiums between 2019 and 2021, culminating with Max Verstappen's first drivers' championship.

At the end of 2021, Honda will leave Formula 1 with the aim of concentrating its research on the production of hybrid and electric cars, declaring environmentally friendly mobility as its core business. It is precisely with this in mind that one understands the current return in 2026, well summarised by CEO Toshihiro Mibe: "One of the main reasons why we have decided to take on a new challenge in Formula 1 is that the top category of motorsport is seeking to become sustainable, in line with Honda's direction towards carbon neutrality and will become a new platform to facilitate the development of our electrification technologies. Honda has a history of growing through new challenges and winning world competitions. With the new 2026 regulations, the key to winning will be a compact, lightweight and powerful electric motor equipped with a high-performance battery capable of handling fast and high power delivery, as well as advanced energy management technologies."

Among the contenders for the 2026 title was expected to be Aston Martin, with the first single-seater conceived by Adrian Newey, whose extreme approach to the new regulations has already yielded 14 drivers' titles in his career. The former Red Bull designer was hired by Lawrence Stroll's team with a monstrous contract worth around £30 million (plus a share package), taking on the unprecedented role of team principal for the first time. However, the centralisation of power in the hands of the British genius already seems to be faltering. In fact, after just two Grands Prix, there are rumours of his imminent downsizing in favour of Jonathan Wheatley, his historical partner of triumphs in Red Bull and recently freed from contractual ties with Audi. At the root of this potential company reorganisation would be the objective managerial difficulties of Newey himself: a pure technician and visionary who is, however, struggling to manage the delicate political and communicative plots with Honda, a vital industrial partner for the team's ambitions.

The current technical and relational short-circuit heavily clashes with the optimism that had accompanied the genesis of the project. When the partnership was made official in May 2023, Silverstone's top management flaunted total confidence. Martin Whitmarsh, CEO of Aston Martin Performance Technologies, had defined the new regulations on the power unit as an epoch-making challenge, saying he was certain he would "be able to navigate it successfully" together with the Japanese giant.

The feedback from the track, however, tempered expectations. The delay in the pre-season tests in Barcelona resulted in a sporting failure in the first official outings. After two Grands Prix the team is last in the standings with zero points, weighed down by a critical defect: the violent vibrations generated by the Japanese engine. An anomaly that has compromised the reliability and driveability of the single-seater, culminating in Fernando Alonso's retirement in China. The Spaniard's words certify the seriousness of the situation: 'I retired because the vibrations were excessive today. From lap 20 onwards I could no longer feel my hands or my feet.

The pressure on Sakura for immediate corrective action is maximum. HRC chief engineer Shintaro Orihara attempted to defend the work done by pointing out a marginal increase in mileage compared to the Melbourne stage, but was forced to admit the crux of the crisis: 'We have improved vibration at the systems level, but this remains an unresolved problem for rider comfort and physical fitness over the entire race distance.

Honda's current technological run-up is part of a broader parabola of the Japanese motorsport industry, which has gone from global hegemony to a complex phase of repositioning in just a few years. In 2021, the year of Max Verstappen's first Honda-powered Formula 1 title, the world's motorsport leadership spoke exclusively Japanese.

In that season, the manufacturers of the Rising Sun triumphed on all fronts, both on two and four wheels. Toyota won both the WEC endurance championship and the WRC rally world championship, confirming absolute technical supremacy on the track and off-road. On two wheels, Yamaha won both the MotoGP rider's world championship with Fabio Quartararo and the Superbike world championship with Toprak Razgatlıoğlu. Finally, it was the exceptional reliability of the Honda engine that propelled the Dutchman from Red Bull to the championship.

Five years on, that overwhelming systemic dominance has been challenged by the European engineering offensive and new regulatory paradigms. If in rallying Toyota still manages to defend its leading shares, in the other categories the Asian giants are facing a laborious structural reorganisation. Evidence of this is the profound technical crisis that grips Yamaha and Honda in MotoGP, the excellent retirements of Suzuki and Kawasaki, and Toyota's choice to re-enter Formula 1 almost under the radar, as a strategic partner of Haas rather than as a manufacturer.

The official return to Formula One imposes a massive economic and engineering effort at a time when Honda is recalibrating its industrial forces. To understand the scale of the challenge, it is useful to analyse the 2024 budget figures and compare them with those of its main compatriot competitor. The distance between the two Japanese automotive superpowers is clear. If Toyota Motor Corporation leads the market with a production value of more than 297.14 billion euro and around 383,000 employees, Honda Motor Co. stands at 134.16 billion in revenue with 194,000 employees. However, it is when it comes to profits that the gap becomes more pronounced: Toyota operates with a margin of 13.35% and a net profit of EUR 29.47 billion, while Honda stands at a margin of 6.07% and a net profit of EUR 5.17 billion.

This financial gap is directly reflected in the strategies related to hybrid technology, the true watershed of today's market. While Toyota was the first to launch the production hybrid with the Prius in 1997, Honda followed closely behind in 1999 with the first Insight, effectively co-founding this segment. Yet the new Formula 1 power units of 2026, which require a 50 per cent electric component, require such complex energy management that even companies with a quarter of a century of experience in this field will be in crisis.

While Honda has chosen to design the new engine from scratch, taking on the huge development costs, Toyota's rivals have opted for a radically opposite approach to minimise the financial risk. The Japanese giant is re-entering Formula One as technical partner and title sponsor of the American team Haas, but the car will continue to be powered by Ferrari engines. Having learnt from the onerous direct experiences of the early 2000s, Toyota has decided not to bear the design costs of the racing hybrid. Instead, it prefers to exploit Haas as an elite training laboratory for its engineers and mechanics, providing aerodynamic development and state-of-the-art simulators in return. A conservative but astute strategy, which leaves the door open for a future entry into the Circus with ready-made engineers.

After the weekend in China, the Circus makes a stop at Suzuka, with qualifying and the race scheduled for Saturday and Sunday respectively at 7am (Italian time). It will be the last round before an unusual five-week stop, caused by the official cancellation of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Grands Prix due to the current situation in the Middle East. On this complex decision, Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali said: 'Although it was a difficult decision to make, unfortunately it is the right one at this stage considering the current situation in the Middle East. I want to take this opportunity to thank the FIA as well as the incredible GP promoters for their support and total understanding, they were looking forward to hosting us with their usual energy and passion. We also look forward to returning as soon as circumstances permit."

However, this forced stop becomes a fundamental strategic assist for Honda and all the chasing teams. The long month's break will in fact guarantee precious time to work in the factory, analyse data and attempt to resolve the serious technical criticalities that have emerged in this start of the season. Not only that: the cancellation of two such onerous international trips frees up important financial resources within the strict constraints of the budget cap. This is an unexpected "treasure" that the teams will be able to reallocate immediately to finance and accelerate the development of the single-seaters, in an attempt to close the gap to the top.