{"id":835993,"date":"2026-07-30T13:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835993\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T13:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T13:54:13","slug":"aston-martin-completes-filming-day-with-upgraded-honda-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/835993\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Martin completes filming day with upgraded Honda engine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While Alpine&#8217;s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/franco-colapinto\/875899\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Franco\u00a0Colapinto<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/audi\/49022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Audi<\/a> Formula 1 driver\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/gabriel-bortoleto\/950450\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Gabriel\u00a0Bortoleto<\/a> completed a second day of\u00a0Pirelli testing to finalise the 2027 tyre line-up, Aston Martin moved on from the previous day&#8217;s tyre work and instead deployed its second filming day of the season at the Hungaroring.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It was too good an opportunity to miss, given that the B-spec AMR26 made its first appearance at last weekend\u2019s Hungarian Grand\u00a0Prix, featuring all the new developments Adrian Newey&#8217;s technical team had introduced to both the chassis and aerodynamics of the 2026 car.<\/p>\n<p>The vast improvement moved Aston back into the pack, with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/fernando-alonso\/489\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Fernando Alonso<\/a> managing to break into Q2 in qualifying for the first time this year, with he and team-mate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/lance-stroll\/20950\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Lance Stroll<\/a> finishing 14th and 13th respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/jak-crawford-aston-martin-test.jpg\" alt=\"Jak Crawford, Aston Martin\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Jak Crawford, Aston Martin<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Aston Martin<\/p>\n<p>Significantly, Wednesday\u2019s filming day was used to shake down Honda&#8217;s long-awaited new\u00a0 power unit, which benefits from the development token granted by the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities\u00a0catch-up system.<\/p>\n<p>The fact that the test was aimed more at analysing the Honda RA626H engine than at the need to film footage is evident from the fact that the driving was entrusted to the team&#8217;s third driver, American\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/driver\/jak-crawford\/314548\/\" data-entitylink-text=\"Jak Crawford\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jak Crawford<\/a>; otherwise, the two regular drivers would have likely been called upon. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/shintaro-orihara-trackside-gen.jpg\" alt=\"Shintaro Orihara, Honda chief engineer\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\"\/> <\/p>\n<p class=\"title\">Shintaro Orihara, Honda chief engineer<\/p>\n<p class=\"photographer\">Photo by: Alastair Staley \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese engineers, working alongside the Aston Martin team, were able to make important comparisons with the AMR26 that raced at the weekend, using the data from the grand prix \u2013 despite the fact that only demo tyres can be used on filming days.<\/p>\n<p>The initial indications appear to have been positive, as the test is understood to have gone well, and troublesome vibrations that had impacted the start of the season seem to have been eliminated.<\/p>\n<p>Honda is planning to deploy its upgraded power unit, which is believed could yield as much as 30bhp, at Zandvoort&#8217;s Dutch Grand Prix, the first race after the summer break on 23 August.<\/p>\n<p>This is certainly not enough to challenge the likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.motorsport.com\/team\/mercedes\/5\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Mercedes<\/a> or Red Bull-Ford, but it is a significant step forward that &#8211; in combination with the radically different car &#8211; could give Alonso and Stroll the final push they need to start contending for points on some circuits.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read Also:<\/p>\n<p>            We want your opinion!<\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-auto\">What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n<p>            <a href=\"#\" class=\"ms-link text-link font-bold\">Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mt-1 text-body\">&#8211; The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Alpine&#8217;s\u00a0Franco\u00a0Colapinto and Audi Formula 1 driver\u00a0Gabriel\u00a0Bortoleto completed a second day of\u00a0Pirelli testing to finalise the 2027 tyre&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":835994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[291642,3016,49,48,578,576,577,27235,26293,82],"class_list":["post-835993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-aston-martin-completes-filming-day-with-upgraded-honda-engine","tag-aston-martin-racing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-hungaroring","tag-jak-crawford","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=835993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/835994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}