Honda has provided the latest glimpse of its new engine ahead of its first season with Aston Martin in F1 2026.<\/p>\n
It comes after Koji Watanabe, the president of the Honda Racing Corporation, admitted \u201cnot everything is going well\u201d with the development of its new power unit.<\/p>\n
Honda shares new image of F1 2026 engine ahead of Aston Martin AMR26 launch<\/p>\n
Want more PlanetF1.com coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google<\/a> to your favourites list for news you can trust<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The Japanese manufacturer\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Honda is set to hold an engine-launch event in Tokyo<\/a> on January 20 ahead of the official unveiling of the Aston Martin AMR26 car on February 9.<\/p>\n F1 2026: Formula 1\u2019s season of change<\/p>\n F1 2025 v F1 2026: Nine key questions ahead of huge regulation changes<\/a><\/p>\n F1\u2019s secret battleground revealed amid preparations for 2026 revolution<\/a><\/p>\n As reported by PlanetF1.com<\/a>, Honda became the first engine manufacturer to reveal the sound of its 2026 powertrain last month.<\/p>\n The marque followed that up last week by publishing images of its new engine.<\/p>\n Honda also produced a short clip, shown to attendees of the Tokyo Auto Salon event, detailing the power unit in its entirely<\/a>, albeit with a heavy silhouette effect.<\/p>\n Honda has now offered another teaser of its 2026 product by posting a fresh teaser image of its new engine on social media (below).<\/p>\n Watanabe has conceded that Honda has encountered problems with the development of its new engine<\/a>, but insisted that the situation is not \u201cfatal.\u201d<\/p>\n He told Japanese outlet Sportiva:\u00a0\u201cTo 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this situation, we are quietly concentrating on improving performance and reliability.<\/p>\n \u201cAston Martin also wants to keep building cars that reflect Adrian [Newey]\u2019s vision, so I think the next step for us on the power unit side is to figure out how to adapt to that.<\/p>\n \u201cIf doing so increases our competitiveness and makes us more likely to win, then we\u2019ll do whatever it takes!\u201d<\/p>\n He added:\u00a0\u201cGiven the uncertainty surrounding rival manufacturers\u2019 progress, it remains a battle to see how close we can get to our own self-imposed targets.<\/p>\n \u201cFrankly, we still need more time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re advancing development by incrementally assessing performance gains from integrating various components.<\/p>\n \u201cSome prove successful, others fail unexpectedly \u2013 it\u2019s a mixed bag.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The FIA confirmed to PlanetF1.com last week<\/a> that it is to meet with \u201ctechnical experts\u201d from all five engine manufacturers on January 22 to discuss matters related to the 2026 power units.<\/p>\n Want to be the first to know exclusive information from the F1 paddock? Join our broadcast channel on WhatsApp<\/a> to get the scoop on the latest developments from our team of accredited journalists.<\/p>\n You can also subscribe to the PlanetF1 YouTube channel<\/a> for exclusive features, hear from our paddock journalists with stories from the heart of Formula 1 and much more!<\/p>\n