Adrian Newey has offered a candid assessment of Aston Martin’s challenging first season with Honda, acknowledging that the Japanese manufacturer has every reason to be disappointed with its progress since returning to Formula 1 as a works power-unit supplier.
The partnership began under a cloud of technical trouble, with severe vibrations and reliability headaches undermining Aston Martin’s opening races.
Subsequent power-unit revisions and aerodynamic improvements have helped the Silverstone outfit claw back some ground, but the recovery remains modest: Aston Martin sits 10th in the constructors’ championship, above only newcomer Cadillac.
For Newey, the challenge is not simply to explain a difficult start, but to turn a bruising first year into the foundation for something more competitive. His message was diplomatic, though there was little attempt to disguise the scale of the work still facing Honda.
Honda has ground to make up
Speaking during Friday’s FIA press conference at the United States Grand Prix, Aston Martin’s tech boss and team principal acknowledged that Honda’s return has not delivered the progress its engineers would have hoped for.
"I think it's fair to say that Honda have probably been a little bit disappointed with how much progress they have managed to make this year,” Newey said.
"But as always, or as is so often the case in that situation, it only strengthens resolve to go forward in the future. The future is obviously the important bit for both companies.
"They are very determined. These things don't change overnight, but they have a lot of good people, a lot of good processes now in place.”
The comparison with Honda’s previous F1 comeback is difficult to avoid. When Red Bull began working with the manufacturer in 2019, Honda was already four seasons into its return, having re-entered the championship in 2015.
Aston Martin and Honda, by contrast, are still navigating the first year of their renewed works relationship.
Newey acknowledged that the current operation has yet to reach the level Honda had achieved by the time Red Bull took it on.
Read also: Horner sees history repeating itself for Newey at Aston Martin“At the moment, in all truth, Honda are a little bit behind where Red Bull, as the works team, RBR, picked up Honda in ’19,” he said.
“But that obviously was four seasons after they first came back in ’15. So, this is the first year back in.
“They are a great company. I have every confidence that they will accelerate quickly and understand the problems of these particular PU regulations.”
The 2027 project offers hope, not guarantees
Aston Martin’s immediate deficit is plain to see, but Newey declined to apportion blame between the chassis and the power unit. Instead, he pointed to the data as the best way to judge where the team is losing ground.
"[In terms of] relative deficit between chassis and engine...it's probably not for me to say," he continued. "I think if people look at the GPS [data], then you can start to get a much better picture from that.
“Moving forward for 2027, then that’s really, as we discussed earlier. Honda - there’s a lot of energy and projects on the way now that perhaps are in their early stages of development, but we see a lot of promise from those.
“Too early to comment on exactly where the PU will be at the start of the season and whether then, assuming it’s allowed under the PUAC [Power Unit Advisory Committee], there will be further development for what will be race eight at the end of the first period.”
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