Honda's new F1 engine to make debut next week

Honda’s new Formula 1 engine for Aston Martin will make its track debut during a filming day in Hungary on Wednesday.

The first phase of the package of changes that Aston Martin and Honda hope will rescue their awful 2026 season arrived for the Hungarian Grand Prix, in the form of a substantial set of chassis upgrades.

That allowed Fernando Alonso to reach Q2 and qualify a season-high 16th.

In the race, Lance Stroll and Alonso - who have recently struggled to even run with the all-new Cadillac team - finished 13th and 14th, beating an Alpine and both Haas and Williams cars.

Honda's trackside general manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara revealed after the race that the filming day at the start of the summer break would be used to try the engine upgrade that Aston Martin is now counting on for further progress.

“That is a good opportunity to check how our new engine works on the chassis,” Orihara said of the filming day, in which teams are limited to 200km of running and must use special ‘demonstration’ tyres.

Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack said the pace gain the team had showed in Hungary was in line with its hopes.

“We came here and we said the main objective is to go back racing,” he said, in reference to having spent the year so far mostly cut adrift at the back.

“I think we achieved that. I think the upgrade package works. And now we need to bring the next steps.”

Orihara agreed that specifically meant the new engine.

“Now we are back to racing the field. Then all improvement is very important to catch up to others,” he said.

“To introduce the new power unit in Zandvoort is quite important now the chassis is working well. So our power unit should bring some laptime.”

The engine vibrations that had been such a big part of Aston Martin and Honda’s initial 2026 woes appeared to return in Hungary on Friday, although both team and engine supplier said those were not the same ones experienced at the start of the season.

And Alonso said they were “fixed completely” when a new engine was fitted for the rest of the weekend from Saturday, suggesting “maybe that's the old power unit that is a bit at the end of its life”.

Asked by The Race how important it now was for Honda to improve given the clear Aston Martin chassis gain, Alonso initially replied “some pressure, isn't it?” then emphasised that both sides of the partnership were helping to tackle each others’ weaknesses.

“We are one team, we work together,” he said. “We know our weakness and we try to help each other.

“Honda was trying to help some of the weaknesses of the car at the beginning of the year. Now with the chassis, we try to help Honda as much as we can.

“It's a long way to go. We understand that, we are aware of that.

“But this hopefully is the first step and both factories are gaining confidence and trust in what they do. So, that probably will be more important than anything else for the next few months.”