Why Honda only realised the scale of its F1 problems in January

Heading into Formula 1’s major technical overhaul, expectations at Aston Martin were high. With a state-of-the-art factory in Silverstone, legendary designer Adrian Newey and a works partnership with Honda, all the ingredients for success appeared to be in place.

That may still prove to be the case in the longer term, but the start of the new era has proved far more challenging than anticipated. Mike Krack recently admitted that Aston Martin had barely been racing before the summer break, simply because the gap to newcomer Cadillac amounted to around one second.

That changed when the AMR26 received its first major upgrade package in Hungary, although the chassis is naturally only part of the story. Honda has also encountered numerous problems since officially returning to F1, ranging from vibrations that troubled the drivers during the opening weeks of the season to a significant deficit in outright performance.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Autosport, trackside manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara explained that the full extent of those problems only became clear in January.

“So, probably at the end of last year, our position was not so bad,” he said. “Still, performance and drivability were in the development stage, but it looked okay.

“But in January, we realised that in some of the areas we found some, not issues, but we realised that performance was always up, down, up, down. So we found some performance, but then we also found some reliability issues.”

Because reliability is always a top priority, Honda had to take a step back on several performance gains to ensure reliability at that performance level. Naturally, that slowed down its overall development.

“In January, we realised that our performance and reliability would not be competitive,” Orihara added. “When we started running in Barcelona, we realised that our performance was definitely poor compared to the other manufacturers. And also, we found some issues on the battery side.”

Those battery-related issues made the development process more complex. They cost valuable track time during winter testing, something that was especially painful given Aston Martin and Honda’s need to gather data to recover from their deficit.

“So we realised that we were not in good position, maybe at beginning of this year. Last year, at end of last year, we already saw that we were not competitive, but we didn’t expect it so bad,” Orihara admitted.

What has been Honda’s biggest challenge?

Part of the explanation is that Honda’s current F1 project is very different from its successful years with Red Bull, something that ties in with the company’s philosophy of transferring F1 knowledge to other parts of the company.

Another part of the explanation is, according to Honda, the complexity of the current regulations. Orihara stressed that there has not been one single stumbling block ahead of 2026, but rather the combination of all the changes introduced at the same time.

Honda Power Unit Launch

“It’s difficult to say which component of the power unit is most challenging because in this regulation, everything has changed a lot,” said Orihara. “For example, MGU-K power changed from, let’s say, [120] to 350 kilowatts. That is a significant change.

“But also on the internal combustion engine side, we have changed the fuel flow rate. So in this regulation, everything has been changed so much. So, a challenging point for Honda is just the combination of a lot of changes happening at the same time.”

That means Honda is lacking outright power from its internal combustion engine, something the long-awaited Zandvoort upgrade is specifically designed to address. It is intended to be the first step towards reducing the brand’s still significant performance deficit.

On the electrical side of the power unit, the emphasis is on efficiency. However, Orihara explained that the changes there have also had a major impact on drivability – one of the areas that has been a recurring topic for Honda and Aston Martin in the opening months of the season.

“Removing the MGU-H has also been quite challenging on the power unit side,” he said.

“Probably that is the most exciting point for power unit manufacturers. I have always been mentioning drivability. That is, maybe not mainly, but the majority of that is coming from removing the MGU-H.

“So that is a challenging point for us as a power unit supplier, to keep the boost pressure at a target. Again, it’s difficult to pick one component that has been most challenging for us, but it has been the combination of all changes at the same time.”

Although Honda knows that returning to the competitive level it is targeting will take time – a lot of time – it hopes to make a first step at Zandvoort. That upgrade is focused purely on improving the internal combustion engine and was already tested during a filming day at the Hungaroring.

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– The Autosport.com Team