F1 considering rule tweak to give Honda extra help
Honda could be set for an extra helping hand with its Formula 1 recovery, The Race has learned, with rival manufacturers evaluating a key change to engine upgrade rules.
The Japanese manufacturer has had a difficult start to the 2026 campaign with Aston Martin, during which vibration problems have impacted performance and reliability, and is facing a big recovery task.
There is scope for progress to be made under F1's Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) rules, but the scale of Honda's deficit is such that even these may not be enough to get it where it needs to be.
This is why discussions have taken place between F1 bosses and manufacturers over recent weeks about engineering a situation where Honda is able to get itself into a more respectable position.
Despite F1 being an ultra-competitive environment, and a general reluctance from manufacturers to change rules that help the opposition out, there is understood to be a feeling in the paddock that nobody gains from keeping Honda where it is.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff went as far as suggesting last week that he felt the upgrades mechanism was something that only Honda should qualify for.
"It seems for me there's one engine manufacturer that has a problem, and we need to help," he said. "But then all the others are pretty much in the same ballpark."
As part of the ongoing discussions aimed at working out what can be done to assist Honda, sources have revealed that a key rules tweak is under consideration.
At the moment, manufacturers will qualify for extra development opportunities if their internal combustion engine is deemed to be behind the benchmark after specified segments laid out over the season.
If they are 2% adrift, they will be allowed to introduce one upgrade for 2026 and one for 2027. If the deficit is 4% or above, then they will be allowed to make two upgrades this season and two more the following campaign.
On top of this, being granted these upgrade opportunities also allows for more spending and bench testing freedom under the power unit cost cap restrictions.
Right now, gains are capped - meaning that once a manufacturer has been granted such opportunities it will not be offered them again that season.
F1's technical regulations state: "ADUO homologation upgrades are not cumulative within a season and will only be granted following the first occasion that the PU [power unit] manufacturer is assessed by the FIA as eligible for ADUO according to the criteria in this Article."
The Race understands that the area being discussed now is to revise this cap, so any manufacturer that is well behind is not limited in terms of how much of a recovery it can make.
It could mean, for example, that if Honda fails to get itself inside the 4% performance window during the second period this year, it would then be granted development and cost-cap freedoms for a second time as well as the ability for even more upgrades.
Any change to the upgrade rules to help Honda would require a super majority in F1's power unit advisory committee, so four of the current five car makers alongside Formula One Management and the FIA.
Miami tweaks
While Honda awaits any news on potential changes to the upgrade rules, it is continuing to work on short-term improvements.
Shintaro Orihara, Honda's trackside general manager and chief engineer, revealed that after the Japanese GP the company kept one Aston Martin AMR26 at its Sakura R&D facility to assist with its efforts to understand the vibration problems.
He said: "We have made some progress, allowing us to implement further countermeasures in Miami and later in the season.
"Realistically, this progress will not have a visible impact on the power unit performance on track, so we shouldn't be expecting big jumps forward here."
