Toto Wolff said that it was an Aston Martin decision, not Mercedes, for their Formula 1 alliance to end ahead of the 2026 season.
Wolff said that Aston Martin made a “conscious decision” to become a works team for the sport’s new era, as it partnered up with Honda. There has been early obstacles for Aston Martin and Honda to deal with in F1 2026.
Toto Wolff explains Aston Martin decision to switch from Mercedes to Honda
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Aston Martin had operated as a Mercedes customer since the brand returned to F1 in 2021, continuing that association as the team morphed from Racing Point into Aston Martin.
This a team which has seen heavy investment under owner Lawrence Stroll, the future goal being championship wins. Aston Martin therefore transitioned to works team status for F1 2026, running the new Honda engine.
However, pace and reliability struggles have hamstrung this alliance in the early stages.
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Aston Martin’s F1 design guru Adrian Newey arrived in March 2025, and for 2026, took over as team principal.
At the F1 2026 season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Newey was asked whether he would have preferred Aston Martin to continue with Mercedes power, had it been his choice.
The Mercedes works team has made a dominant start to the new season.
“I think we are where we are with Honda. Obviously, our focus now is to work with Honda to get to the best possible place,” said Newey.
“Being realistic, this season is first of all, getting on top of this vibration problem so we can run reliably, and from there to see how much performance they can add to the combustion engine in particular.
“Then at the same time, of course, Honda needs to start working on the ’27 engine because it’s clear that a very large step in combustion engine power is needed for ’27, and that has to be their sole focus.”
Mercedes team boss and co-owner Toto Wolff was asked whether Mercedes would have been happy for Aston Martin to retain use of its power unit.
Wolff had suggested in the past that Mercedes would be open to trimming down its pool of customer teams. However, he insisted that it was not Mercedes’ call to part with Aston Martin.
Alpine replaced Aston Martin as a Mercedes customer for F1 2026. Reigning double champions McLaren, and Williams, also use the Mercedes engine as a customer.
“Aston Martin was a client and a partner of Mercedes over those many years, and we still deliver engines and other components to the road car side, so that wasn’t a Mercedes decision to not go with Aston Martin,” Wolff clarified.
“I think it was a conscious decision to become a works team, with Honda, with their partner Aramco, and that’s why we had to let them go.”
Aston Martin/Honda, alongside the Audi works squad, are one of only two examples of a singular team running an F1 2026 power unit.
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