Honda has revealed the first sound of a 2026 Formula 1 engine, in a short clip of dyno testing posted on social media.
While manufacturers have so far held back from revealing any specific details about the progress for their all-new power units, Honda is the first entrant to break ranks and go public.
In a social media post published on several platforms on Friday, which featured the sound of its new engine, Honda’s 20-second clip was labelled as “our soundtrack for 2026”
You heard it here first. Our soundtrack for 2026 🔊
— Honda Racing F1 (@HondaRacingF1) December 12, 2025
#F1 pic.twitter.com/W44ddc63dM
The sound covers the power unit changing up seven gears from the beginning of the clip, before running flat out down a straight and then changing down as it slows for a corner.
With track testing of the current power units not allowed, the audio will have to have come from dyno testing of the Honda engine that will be used to power the Aston Martin team next year.
Compared to the noise of the current turbo hybrids, Honda’s dyno run offers the first evidence of a slightly different engine sound for 2026.
This comes off the back of F1 having abandoned the MGU-H that acted as a bit of a muffler for the generation of turbo hybrids that ran from 2014 until this season.
Speaking earlier this year, Mercedes’s F1 engine chief Hywel Thomas told The Race that the noise would be altered by a combination of factors – some of which made things better and others which made it worse.
“With the removal of the MGU-H, there's less back pressure on the engine,” he said. “The turbo is taking out less energy. So you might think that would increase the sound.
“But there's less fuel, so you might think that would decrease the sound. I think it's going to end up really, really similar, honestly.
“It might be a bit noisier, it might be a little bit less. But I don't think it's a step change.
"My impression from standing in the dyno and listening to the sound from a mic into a speaker, the speakers are still on about seven. We haven't had to turn it up to up to 10 to hear it, or down to three....”
Honda’s high hopes
Honda returned to world championship glory with Red Bull in recent years, but its partnership with the squad ended after the Japanese manufacturer initially made the decision to quit F1 entirely.
However, a revamp of the 2026 rules, with an increased reliance on electrical energy, drew it back to grand prix racing to link up with Aston Martin.
While there is huge uncertainty about which manufacturer holds the advantage heading into the new rules era, Honda has declared a degree of confidence about what it can eventually achieve.
Speaking to the Aston Martin website this week, Honda Racing Corporation’s president Koji Watanabe said about the chances of success with Aston Martin: “The thing we can't predict, and is beyond our control, is the status of our competitors.
“Before we know that, we can't talk about anything beyond meeting our own internal goals for the season. Of course, in the longer term, the ultimate goal of this partnership, and our definition of success, is winning the world championship.
"It's very important to take a long-term view of this. Our relationship with Aston Martin Aramco is going beyond a technical collaboration – we are sharing a common vision.
“There is a lot of passion in the team at the AMR Technology Campus, but also a great deal of quality. Pair that with Honda’s development skills and ability to provide winning power units, and we have the potential to be successful in F1, not just in 2026, but also '27, '28 and beyond.
"We are on the eve of something very special."
