Aston Martin Racing's new Honda powertrains are underwhelming to say the least. Not only are the engines allegedly down some 80 horsepower to the rest of the cars on track, but the powertrains kept failing in pre-season testing. So many failures occurred, in fact, that Aston Martin says it doesn't have enough spare components on hand to even compete at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix. According to Motorsport Italy, the team was considering its options to just sit out the race weekend altogether and regroup ahead of round two in China next week.

Because this would be a breach of the Concorde Agreement, and would come with a huge fine, Aston will be showing up to Melbourne prepared to run the minimum required laps. Honda has discovered that the vibrations of its turbocharged V6 engine are causing the hybrid batteries to fail after a surprisingly short number of laps. Motorsport Italy reports that Aston's solution to this issue is to bring both AMR26s to the race, "but the intention is to complete the minimum distance needed to line up for the race and stop after a few laps."

"We are aware that the test results indicate a very difficult and challenging situation," Ikuo Takeishi told Motorsport, head of HRC's four-wheel racing department. "Our engineers at Sakura and the track staff are working hard to make improvements."

Don't forget that Honda had abysmal reliability when it re-joined the roster of F1 engine suppliers with McLaren in 2015 as well. That abysmal season with McLaren was also driven by current Aston Martin racer Fernando Alonso, an unfortunate coincidence. He'll only need to turn about three laps this weekend in order to fulfill the letter of the team's necessary activities, but you can be sure those will be agonizing laps for the Spaniard.

Canadian fashion magnate Lawrence Stroll has spent untold billions of dollars in an effort to make his Aston Martin Racing outfit a top F1 contender. He's gone so far as to build a new facility for the team, hire the most successful chassis designer in F1 history, and partner with major automotive OEM Honda to build powertrains for the car in 2026. Stroll has hired multiple former F1 champs to partner with his son Lance in an effort to get his kid on the podium. None of it has worked, and it looks like the team will start 2026 in the worst way possible — missing an entire Grand Prix. Maybe they should drive the Costco gokarts.

There isn't much precedent here for Aston Martin, as there hasn't been a team missing the first round of the season since USF1 failed to arrive to the grid in 2010 as the team's funding collapsed at the last minute. The Manor/Marussia team arrived to the opening round in 2015 using their 2014-spec car as the new car wasn't ready yet, but the team did still manage to compete in the Grand Prix as normal. Neither of those teams failed because of a technical issue, but rather because of dry funding pools.

Aston Martin's stated goal for 2026 was to move up to fight among the Red Bulls and McLarens. With Fernando Alonso's impending retirement, the team hoped it could attract a top talent driver to pair with Failson Stroll to give the team a fighting chance at winning something. Now it's back to the drawing board and perhaps even an outright redesign of the AMR26 chassis. Maybe Honda should stop leaving F1, because every time it comes back that engine is a real stinker.

The final possible reason why Aston Martin Honda found itself in a difficult position during the 2026 pre-season testing lies within Aston Martin itself.

　At the joint shakedown held in Barcelona, ​​Spain on January 26th this year, the shakedown of Aston Martin Honda's new car, the AMR26, was delayed. However, everyone in the team knew that.

　Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey said:

"I joined Aston Martin in March 2025. We weren't able to get a model of the 2026 car into the wind tunnel until mid-April. Our rivals had already started wind tunnel testing of their 2026 car in January 2025, when aerodynamic testing of the 2026 car was allowed, so we were about four months behind.

　This is by no means an exaggeration on Newey's part. In fact, he is understating it. According to Honda's F1 project general manager, Satoshi Tsunoda, LPL, Newey's arrival at Aston Martin was significant:


"Since Mr. Newey joined Aston Martin in March 2025, almost everything we've done up until now has changed. We haven't changed the engine structure, of course, but everything else, including the peripheral equipment and how it's attached to the car body, has changed."

　For example, at the 2026 Honda x Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team New Partnership Launch Press Conference held in Tokyo on January 20th, LPL Tsunoda explained the reason for the two-tiered battery (Energy Store/ES), saying, "As we progressed with the development of the new car, the team requested that we make it as compact as possible and as short (in overall length) as possible, so we went with a two-tiered design ," which was also a request from Newey.

"Newey asked us, 'Can't you do it this way?' and we were running out of time..."

　Details of the battery trouble that occurred during the pre-season test in Bahrain have not been revealed, but when we hear this story, we can't help but think that it is related to a design change made just before the clock ran out.

There's one other thing that concerns me about Newey. Honda had worked with Newey during his time at Red Bull, but they didn't actually do any direct business with him. The
bridge between Honda and Red Bull was Rob Marshall, who later moved to McLaren, and he was in charge of the mechanical aspects of the engine.

　After the decision to partner with Aston Martin was made, the technical contact with Honda was not Andy Cowell, but Engineering Director Luca Fabbat, as Cowell is more in charge of the management side of things.

　However, since Newey joined, his role has changed from managing technical partner to team principal, and Cowell has moved from team principal to chief strategy officer, and it is clear that the team is in a state of disarray.

　To make matters worse, Aston Martin did not have a VTT. VTT stands for Virtual Track Test, and is a device that runs the entire car, including the engine, gearbox, and suspension, on a static rig before actual racing to verify reliability in a simulated racing environment. It is used when new regulations are introduced or in the early stages of vehicle development, and all top teams have this equipment in their factories. McLaren and Red Bull, both of which have partnered with Honda in the past, also have it, and once Honda has completed its power unit, the teams would conduct VTT at their own factories and make adjustments in advance to prevent resonance and other issues from occurring during actual racing on the circuit.

　However, Aston Martin does not have this. Initially, they planned to have it done by AVL in Austria, but in the end, they decided to have it done by HRC Sakura.

　VTT tests the entire car, including not only the engine but also the final gearbox and suspension, so normally the power unit manufacturer would transport the engine to the team's factory where these are being developed until the very last moment. Williams, which missed the joint shakedown in January, was able to show no signs of lagging behind at the Bahrain test two weeks later because they had thoroughly carried out VTT at their own factory.

"Honda had a tough time, but I think it was even tougher for everyone on the team," said Tsunoda.

　During the first season of testing, there were numerous instances where the team's engine speed and downshifting were not coordinated well when braking. Further expansion of the factory will be essential for Aston Martin to grow into a top team.

Cadillac Formula 1 driver Valtteri Bottas will drop five places on the Australian Grand Prix due to an outstanding penalty.

Fifteen months ago, Sauber racer Bottas spun Sergio Perez’ Red Bull around on lap one of the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, landing a 10-second penalty; 45 minutes later, as Kevin Magnussen attempted to overtake Bottas around the outside in that same Turn 6, the Finn locked both front wheels and drove straight into the Haas.

Bottas retired from the grand prix due to the damage, so in lieu of a drive-through penalty, stewards gave him a five-place grid drop for his next race.

Having lost his seat at Sauber (now Audi), the veteran already knew he wasn’t going to compete full-time in 2025, and his Mercedes reserve gig failed to yield any racing opportunities.

The aforementioned ‘next race’ will therefore be the 2026 Australian Grand Prix, when the Cadillac team makes its F1 debut.

The sporting regulations have since been tweaked, with stewards now entitled to administer “a drop of any number of grid positions for the next Sprint or Race in which the driver participates in the subsequent twelve (12) month period”.

But the new wording is not applied retroactively, so as stated by the stewards in their decision on 8 December 2024, Bottas will get this penalty in his next race, regardless of the timing.

Cadillac isn’t expected to make it out of Q1 in Melbourne, unless the team can spring a surprise, so the sanction might have little impact on the veteran’s race.

However, Bottas has lost the five penalty points he incurred on his licence that day, as they are automatically cleared after 12 months, so he is not at risk of a race ban – unlike Oliver Bearman.

Haas sophomore Bearman has been veering dangerously close to the 12-point tally on his licence for the past six months.

As of 7 September 2025, the Briton had accrued 10 points, owing to misdemeanors such as causing collisions and breaching red-flag rules.

Bearman spent four grands prix at direct risk of a ban before dropping down to eight points, but a collision with Liam Lawson at Interlagos on 8 November brought him back up to nine. He was then found guilty of making more than one change of direction when defending from Lance Stroll in the Abu Dhabi GP on 7 December, receiving one more point.

The 20-year-old from England will therefore need to be irreproachable until the Canadian GP, which will be the seventh round of the 2026 season. On that Saturday, he will lose two penalty points from his tally of 10.

If Bearman were to get suspended, he would most likely be replaced by one of Haas’ reserve drivers, Jack Doohan or Ryo Hirakawa.

No other driver has accrued more than six points on his licence, with Lawson and Stroll coincidentally the only two racers on six.

The news is not yet formally confirmed, but GrandPrix247 has got to know, based on information received from our reporter in the Australian Grand Prix paddock, Agnes Carlier, that these two races will not happen.

That is, of course, due to the escalation in the situation in the Middle East following the eruption of the conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran.

The war has quickly spread throughout the Gulf as countries like the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain have all been subject to raids by Iranian missiles.

The FIA has announced on Tuesday that the opening round of the 2026 World Endurance Championship, which was originally scheduled to take place in Bahrain on March 26-28, has been postponed.

The 2026 Bahrain Grand Prix was originally going to be held on April 10-12, followed by the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah on April 17-19.
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And while there is still some time, there is no assurance that the conflict in the Middle East will subside any time soon, and as such, it seems that F1 has moved to cancel these two races while looking for replacements, which will reportedly be at Imola, which has been removed from the 2026 F1 calendar recently. The other replacement will be in Portimao, Portugal.

Valtteri Bottas has been told he won't have to serve a lingering grid penalty at Formula 1's Australian Grand Prix.

Bottas accrued a five-place grid penalty on his last F1 outing at the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for punting Red Bull's Sergio Perez - now his Cadillac team-mate - out of the way.

Drivers have to serve the penalty at the next round they take part in, which in the Finn's case would have been his F1 return this weekend with new entrant Cadillac.

A changing of the wording left Bottas unsure if he was still going to have to serve it, as the F1 now only takes grid penalties accumulated over the previous 12 months into account.

Article B1.9.5h of the 2026 sporting regulations now defines a grid penalty as "a drop of any number of grid positions for the next sprint or race in which the driver participates in the subsequent twelve (12) month period."

But on Thursday the FIA confirmed a tweak to a different article, B2.5.4b, means that rule will now be applied retroactively, so Bottas will be able to line up in the spot he qualified. "Apparently it's vanished thanks to some new regulation," Bottas said. "So no grid penalty."

"Classified drivers who have received 15 or less cumulative unserved grid penalties for the race imposed in the previous twelve (12) months will be allocated a temporary grid position equal to their qualifying session classification plus the sum of their unserved grid penalties," the FIA rules state.

The rule change will likely mean little to Bottas on Cadillac's debut weekend, as F1's 11th entrant isn't expected to be a threat for Q2.

"It's been hard work, lots of problem solving, but we've already made great progress," he said. "And really hats off to the whole team being here ready for race one, which I think already is incredible. So looking forward to this journey."