Honda has provided the latest glimpse of its new engine ahead of its first season with Aston Martin in F1 2026.
It comes after Koji Watanabe, the president of the Honda Racing Corporation, admitted “not everything is going well” with the development of its new power unit.
Honda shares new image of F1 2026 engine ahead of Aston Martin AMR26 launch
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Honda has entered a technical partnership with Aston Martin ahead of the F1 2026 season after its highly successful stint with Red Bull came to an end at the close of last year.
The Japanese manufacturer’s alliance with Aston Martin marks a full-time return to F1 for Honda, which officially withdrew from the sport at the end of the 2021 season but continued to provide technical support to Red Bull.
Honda is set to hold an engine-launch event in Tokyo on January 20 ahead of the official unveiling of the Aston Martin AMR26 car on February 9.
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As reported by PlanetF1.com, Honda became the first engine manufacturer to reveal the sound of its 2026 powertrain last month.
The marque followed that up last week by publishing images of its new engine.
Honda also produced a short clip, shown to attendees of the Tokyo Auto Salon event, detailing the power unit in its entirely, albeit with a heavy silhouette effect.
Honda has now offered another teaser of its 2026 product by posting a fresh teaser image of its new engine on social media (below).
Watanabe has conceded that Honda has encountered problems with the development of its new engine, but insisted that the situation is not “fatal.”
He told Japanese outlet Sportiva: “To be honest, not everything is going well, so there are many areas where we are struggling, but nothing fatal has happened that we cannot overcome.
“In this situation, we are quietly concentrating on improving performance and reliability.
“Aston Martin also wants to keep building cars that reflect Adrian [Newey]’s vision, so I think the next step for us on the power unit side is to figure out how to adapt to that.
“If doing so increases our competitiveness and makes us more likely to win, then we’ll do whatever it takes!”
He added: “Given the uncertainty surrounding rival manufacturers’ progress, it remains a battle to see how close we can get to our own self-imposed targets.
“Frankly, we still need more time.
“We’re advancing development by incrementally assessing performance gains from integrating various components.
“Some prove successful, others fail unexpectedly – it’s a mixed bag.”
Rumours last month claimed that two 2026 power unit manufacturers, believed to be Mercedes and Red Bull Powertrains, have identified a loophole in the 2026 technical regulations related to engine compression ratio.
The FIA confirmed to PlanetF1.com last week that it is to meet with “technical experts” from all five engine manufacturers on January 22 to discuss matters related to the 2026 power units.
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