Honda are to return to Formula One as the works engine manufacturer for the Aston Martin team in 2026. The partnership represents a hugely significant step in the team’s aim, made in 2021, of competing for championships within five years. The move is also a major U-turn for Honda who only pulled out of F1 at the end of 2021 just as the company delivered what was considered to be the best engine on the grid.
The partnership, which was announced on Wednesday, will be exclusive to Aston Martin who are currently supplied with customer engines by Mercedes, from whom they also source their gearbox and suspension.
Aston Martin’s group CEO, Martin Whitmarsh, who was McLaren team principal between 2008 and 2014, emphasised why they needed the manufacturer deal with Honda. “It is very, very difficult to consistently win championships without a full works relationship which is why we have made this decision,” he said.
Whitmarsh believed that the ability to compete at the front required a works engine manufacturer, and with that the team bringing all parts for manufacture in-house at their brand new factory and wind tunnel facility in Silverstone, which will become fully operational this year.
“Its a big challenge,” he said. “This is about the growing up of this team. You set out to win in F1, that means beating existing partners and in order to do that we have got to be independent.
“The nature of F1 is if you want to win it means beating Mercedes and it is extremely difficult to beat an organisation as good as Mercedes if you are reliant on them for intellectual property, facilities and components. We are here to win and therefore you have to have the complete integration of facilities, process and approach.”
Aston Martin are enjoying an extremely competitive opening to the 2023 season: they are second in the constructors’ championship behind Red Bull, with Fernando Alonso having taken four third places in five races. Alonso is in with a real chance of claiming his first F1 victory for a decade this weekend at the Monaco Grand Prix which should suit the strengths of his car.
Honda had rejoined F1 in 2015 with McLaren and endured three difficult years during which their engine was well off the pace and publicly criticised by Alonso at the time. When McLaren dropped them they supplied Toro Rosso for one year in 2018 and Red Bull took them on as a works partner in 2019. By 2021 their engine was at the front of the grid taking Max Verstappen to the title but by then the company had already decided to withdraw from the sport.
Verstappen won again in 2022 with, effectively, the Honda engine, which Red Bull had taken on to build itself with Honda assistance at their newly built Red Bull Powertrains department. When withdrawing, Honda noted their interests as a car manufacturer were no longer best represented by F1, stating that the industry was undergoing a “once-in-100-years period of great transformation” and citing the conversion to electric power and carbon-free technology.
However the new 2026 engine F1 regulations, which will include an increase to a use of 50% of electrical power and the employment of a 100% sustainable fuel, were considered to be in line with the company’s commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030.
The six manufacturers that have registered as power-unit suppliers for the 2026-2030 timeframe are Honda, Mercedes, Red Bull Ford, Ferrari, Alpine and Audi. Red Bull are to join with Ford in 2026 as their partner in engine manufacture at their powertrain plant in Milton Keynes.
At this point Haas (Ferrari-engined), McLaren (Mercedes) and Williams (Mercedes) have yet to confirm engine manufacturers for 2026 but Honda said they have no plans to supply another team.
