indicated Aston Martin only realised the true state of Honda\u2019s returning<\/a> F1 program during a meeting in Tokyo last November.<\/p>\nBut Honda Racing Corporation president Watanabe said the circumstances were more nuanced.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, I think that it\u2019s a misunderstanding,\u201d Watanabe said at Suzuka.<\/p>\n
Honda stepped away from Formula 1 at the end of 2021 before committing to the new 2026 regulations, meaning its program had to be rebuilt after a period of limited activity.<\/p>\n
During that time, engineers were reassigned across the company, which contributed to the perception that the operation had changed significantly since its successful Red Bull partnership.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur policy is to rotate the engineers of the motorsports regularly to mass production, or more advanced technologies like jet, or eVTOL [hybrid-electric aircraft] or hydrology, or something like that,\u201d Watanabe explained.<\/p>\n
The rebuild inevitably took time, though Watanabe stressed the organisation is now fully staffed.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo rebuild the organisation takes good time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that was his worry, I think so. But we have sufficient organisation and the talent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Honda-Aston Martin partnership has faced early challenges in the opening phase of the 2026 season, with vibration issues linked to the power unit emerging once the engine was integrated into the chassis.<\/p>\n
Watanabe said those issues were not fully visible during initial testing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the tests on the dyno the vibration is on an acceptable level, but once we integrate it in the actual chassis, that vibration is getting much more than the tests on the dyno,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Watanabe added that Honda is now working closely with Aston Martin to address the problem.<\/p>\n
Despite the early hurdles, Watanabe insisted the relationship between the two organisations remains strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe relationship between Aston Martin, Aramco and Honda is quite good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMyself and Mr. [Lawrence] Stroll, or myself and Adrian Newey, is quite a good relation, so I have no worry about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/294243.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Honda has clarified earlier comments by Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey. Image: XPB Images Comments earlier this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[55009,55010,28365,179395,111,139,69,9335,213],"class_list":["post-351479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adrian-newey","tag-aston-martin","tag-honda","tag-japanese-gp","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot2","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Honda](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/XPB_1403355_HiRes.jpg\")