After guiding Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to his maiden world championship in 2021, Honda will return as an F1 engine provider in the 2026 season. FIA confirmed the same earlier this year when they announced six engine suppliers from 2026 onwards.
The other suppliers include Mercedes, Ferrari, Audi, Alpine Racing and Red Bull Ford. Since Red Bull are planning to produce their own engines in a partnership with Ford, Honda has reportedly approached the Aston Martin F1 team to become their engine supplier.
Will Honda partner with Aston Martin in 2026?
According to Motorsport.com España, Honda is currently in negotiations with Aston Martin for an exclusive deal beginning in 2026. The report states that Aston Martin, which currently uses Mercedes engines, is considering a new power unit supplier as they no longer want to be a customer team.
As per the report, Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll is well aware of the limitations that exist when his side are a customer team. It is always difficult for a customer team to outperform a works team since they do not have much decision-making power over the production of the engines.
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However, if the Silverstone-based team are to produce their own engines, they will also face several challenges. The biggest challenge that they will arguably face is to produce their own wind tunnel.
Aston Martin have a dream start to 2023 season
After finishing seventh in the Constructors’ Championship in the past two seasons, Aston Martin currently find themselves second in the points table. With 65 points after the first three races, they have already scored more points than they did in the entirety of 2022 (55).
Double world champion Fernando Alonso has played a huge part in helping his team deliver strong results week in and week out. The Spaniard has finished on the podium in each of the three races so far and currently finds himself third in the championship, just behind the two Red Bull drivers of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
On the other hand, Lance Stroll has also scored some valuable points in the other Aston Martin. Despite starting the season not being at 100%, the Canadian has so far scored 20 points after the first three races. He finished sixth in Bahrain and an outstanding fourth in Australia. Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, he suffered from a disappointing DNF.
Following a strong start to their 2023 season, Aston Martin will now hope to carry forward this momentum to the next race in Baku. The Azerbaijan Grand Prix will take place from April 28 to 30.
