The Aston Martin-Honda Alliance version has its own logic

In 2026, Aston Martin F1 may change its engine supplier: we recently talked about the team being in negotiations with Honda, referring to The Race. The journalists of the British edition, developing the subject, gave a number of arguments for such a scenario, which in their view seems increasingly likely.

The team from Silverstone faces the task of becoming a real contender for victory in the World Cup in a few years, for which investors are investing huge sums in its development. Already this year she will move to a new base, the construction of which is almost complete, and a new wind tunnel should be commissioned in the third quarter of 2024.

Serious ambitions call for proper execution and a priority contract for the supply of Honda power plants could be a perfectly logical step. Currently, Aston Martin cars are powered by customer Mercedes engines, but if you manage to negotiate with a Japanese company, it already means factory support.

In the recent past, these two companies have already had crossovers: Aston Martin remained title sponsor of Red Bull Racing in 2019 and 2020, when Milton Keynes was already partnered with Honda. True, at that time Aston Martin had former owners, and Lawrence Stroll was only hatching plans to take control of this company.

But even earlier, when the team was called Jordan, it received Mugen-Honda engines for several seasons, helping Damon Hill and Heinz-Harald Frentzen to three victories in 1998 and 1999. And while this is all a matter of days gone by, the Aston Martin alliance with Japanese minors at a new stage in history very attractive prospects.

At the moment, however, the team is quite happy with the cooperation with Mercedes, acquiring not only power plants, but also gearboxes and rear suspension parts.

“I don’t think any of the components we get from Mercedes limit our speed capabilities,” Aston Martin F1 technical director Dan Fallows quotes The Race as saying. – Are there obstacles that stand in the way of achieving the goals we want to achieve? Not at all, so we are very happy with our business relationship.”

But there is now a strong belief in Formula 1 that a team needs factory support from an engine manufacturer to qualify for the championship because that’s the biggest advantage.

In this regard, Aston Martin has only one option: to contract with Honda, as the rest of the engine manufacturers have their own factory teams, which they will continue to serve in 2026, when the championship moves to a new generation of power. plants. Honda engines now have an excellent reputation, with Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen winning the title twice and his team winning the Constructors’ Championship last year. And apparently it will repeat this success in 2023.

Honda management has made contradictory decisions in recent years, first completed the program in Formula 1, then continued the cooperation with Red Bull, but in a slightly different form, so Milton Keynes decided to produce power plants itself, but with the support from Ford , mainly financially . However, Honda changed its mind about leaving the championship and the company needs a new partner in 2026 – it seems Aston Martin is best suited for this role.

There is no doubt that both parties have the necessary financial resources. It is already clear that the team is on the rise, and Fernando Alonso’s four podiums confirm this convincingly. And Honda engines in Red Bull Racing cars continue to win races, so a possible future alliance with Aston Martin looks to be one of two quite worthy partners.