– “It was a long but intense period between races, during which a lot of work was done,” reports Honda Chief Engineer Shintaro Orihara ahead of Formula 1’s return to Miami this weekend. After the Japanese Grand Prix at the end of March, the premier class had gone on a roughly one-month break.
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Honda and Aston Martin in particular could make good use of this, because after the first three races of the 2026 season, the Silverstone team is pointless in eleventh and last place in the world championship. The biggest point of criticism at the moment is the powertrain from partner Honda.
Because this causes strong vibrations, an Aston Martin driver has only managed to finish a Grand Prix once this year so far. Fernando Alonso last achieved this in Suzuka, where he finished 18th, one lap behind the leader.
“After this race, we took the opportunity for the first time to keep one of the AMR26 cars on site in Sakura for further static tests, focusing on reducing vibrations and thus increasing reliability,” reveals Orihara.
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This opportunity arose because the cars were in Japan anyway after the race in Suzuka and the two races originally planned for April in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were cancelled. Nevertheless, Orihara tempers expectations ahead of Miami.
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“We have made some progress that will allow us to implement further countermeasures in Miami and throughout the rest of the season,” says the Japanese man about the work with the real car in recent weeks.
However, he also emphasizes: “Realistically, this progress will not have a noticeable impact on the performance of the powertrain on the track, so we should not expect any big leaps forward here.”
For expert Martin Brundle, this is not surprising. The long-time Formula 1 driver recently told Sky that it will be “very difficult” for Honda and Aston Martin to solve the current problems this year.
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“Nothing will improve until 2027,” is Brundle’s prediction.
