Honda energy items have powered Max Verstappen to two-straight Drivers’ championships, and Pink Bull to the Constructors’ title final season. However the contract between Honda and Pink Bull is ready to run out after the 2025 season, and Pink Bull will enter the 2026 marketing campaign in a brand new partnership with Ford.
Nonetheless, that doesn’t imply that Honda will probably be absent from the F1 world.
Honda and Aston Martin have introduced a works partnership, below which the producer will provide energy items to the Silverstone-based F1 crew beginning in 2026.
Following Honda’s withdrawal from the F1 grid — which opened the door for the Ford-Pink Bull partnership — the Japanese producer expressed their curiosity to stay on the grid when the brand new laws go into impact for the 2026 marketing campaign. Following that expression of curiosity, Honda was linked with a couple of completely different groups, together with Williams and McLaren.
Honda and McLaren had labored collectively up to now, through the 2015-2017 seasons, and whereas that relationship soured over reliability points, there was a thought that the 2 organizations would be capable to come collectively on a brand new energy unit beginning in 2026, permitting McLaren to shift away from counting on Mercedes for his or her energy items.
Within the announcement, Aston Martin said that Honda “[w]in poor health provide energy items to the crew from the 2026 season, that are compliant with the brand new F1 energy unit laws that can come into pressure that yr. The brand new laws will see a big improve within the deployment {of electrical} energy and the usage of 100 per cent sustainable gas provided by AMF1 Group strategic associate Aramco.”
Lawrence Stroll, the Proprietor and Government Chairman of Aston Martin F1, welcomed the partnership. “I want to welcome Honda and Honda Racing Company (HRC) to the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formulation One® Group. We share a mutual drive, willpower, and relentless ambition to succeed on observe,” mentioned Stroll. “Honda is a world titan and its success in motorsport is longstanding and extremely spectacular. I want to thank Mr. Mibe and Mr. Watanabe, and the entire crew at HRC as we embark on this thrilling future collectively from 2026.”
For Honda, the F1’s intention of vitality sustainability was an enormous draw of their return to the grid. “One of many key causes for our determination to take up the brand new problem in F1 is that the world’s pinnacle type of racing is striving to turn out to be a sustainable racing sequence, which is in keeping with the route Honda is aiming towards carbon neutrality, and it’ll turn out to be a platform which is able to facilitate the event of our electrification applied sciences,” mentioned Honda International CEO Toshihiro Mibe.
“Honda is an organization that has a historical past of rising by taking up challenges and profitable world-class races. With the brand new 2026 laws, the important thing for profitable will probably be a compact, light-weight, and high-power electrical motor with a high-performance battery able to dealing with excessive and swift energy output, in addition to the vitality administration expertise,” added Mibe. “We consider that the applied sciences and know-how gained from this new problem can doubtlessly be utilized on to our future mass manufacturing electrical automobiles, comparable to an electrical flagship sports activities mannequin, and electrification applied sciences in varied areas, together with eVTOL which is at present below analysis and improvement.”
The announcement comes as Aston Martin, who at present depends on Mercedes because the provider of their energy items for the AMR23, is having fun with a shocking begin to the 2023 F1 season. Veteran driver Fernando Alonso has completed third in 4 of the 5 races this season, and his success has pushed the crew to second within the Constructors’ Standings, behind solely Pink Bull.
Whereas the crew is dreaming of lofty success within the current, Mibe shares that very same imaginative and prescient for the longer term.
“Honda and our new associate, the Aston Martin F1 Group, share the identical honest perspective and willpower to win, so beginning with the 2026 season, we’ll work collectively and try for the Championship title as Aston Martin Aramco Honda,” added Mibe.
Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of F1, welcomed the partnership and pointed to F1’s transfer in direction of sustainable fuels. “It’s nice information for Formulation One which Honda will associate with Aston Martin to produce energy items from 2026. That is additional proof that our world platform and progress gives manufacturers with enormous potential, and it additionally reveals that our plans to maneuver to sustainable fuels in 2026 is the suitable strategy to supply the automotive world various options to decarbonise the planet,” mentioned Domenicali. “We are able to all see the unbelievable dedication Aston Martin has made to our sport and we are able to’t wait to see the thrilling partnership in motion, and I wish to congratulate each events on this thrilling information.”
