Adrian Newey admitted Aston Martin’s new Honda-powered package remains in serious trouble ahead of the 2026 Australian GP, with battery problems and persistent vibration issues forcing the team to focus on survival rather than performance in F1’s first weekend of the new regulation era.
The much-hyped partnership is already facing major issues ahead of the season opener. First signs of trouble appeared during pre-season as the team struggled with early reliability concerns, recording the fewest number of laps out of any team across all testing outings.
Now, the first race weekend of the season is off to a rocky start for the Silverstone-based outfit.
Speaking in Friday’s team principals’ press conference ahead of the 2026 Australian GP, Newey outlined the scale of the problem after a disrupted start to the weekend. Fernando Alonso missed FP1 with a power unit issue, while Lance Stroll only managed three laps in the morning practice session.
Both Alonso and Stroll complained about vibration issues encountered during pre-season, which not only pose a risk to the technical aspects of the machine, but also sparked concerns about potential injury to the drivers themselves.
Only two working batteries
Worse yet, practice day also brought the discovery of yet another unexpected problem for the team.
He explained, “We’re having continuing problems with the battery, so we’ve had a fresh problem, if you like, [with] communication internally with the battery to its management system. But the much more underlying problem is the vibration issues that we continue to struggle with.”
Newey added that Aston Martin will be simply aiming to finish the 58-lap Australian GP, if possible, rather than focusing on particular performance targets.
“Well, obviously 30 laps in each and 50 laps in the race, or whatever it is,” he said.
“I think realistically it’s just trying to manage the problem. We are short on batteries. We’ve only got two batteries left, the two that are in the car, so if we lose one of those then it’s obviously a big problem. So we’ve got to be very careful on how we use the batteries.”
Aston Martin’s 2026 Australian GP weekend hangs in the balance
Even if Aston Martin gets the car running properly, the battery issue will still cost it a significant amount of power.
“The critical point is the number of batteries,” Newey said. “As I mentioned earlier, we came here with four batteries. We’ve had conditioning problems or communication problems with two of those batteries, which means we’ve, as we sit here today, only got two operational batteries.”
“That, given our kind of rate of battery damage, is quite a scary place to be in,” he added. “Obviously, we’re hopeful that we can get through the weekend and start two cars and so on and so forth, but it’s very difficult to be concrete at the moment about that.”
When asked if Aston Martin can fly in more batteries during the 2026 Australian GP weekend, Newey ruled it out in blunt terms: “Unfortunately not. There aren’t any.”
The team cannot properly assess the car
Newey also stressed that the power unit problems are now hampering the team’s ability to learn about the chassis itself. Limited mileage, especially in more representative conditions, has left the team with very little useful feedback on the AMR26 as a complete package.
The 67-year old called the situation one of the most frustrating of his career, saying he cannot get the information he needs to move forward: “I think it’s one where I kind of feel a bit powerless because, clearly, we’ve got a very significant PU problem, and our lack of running then also means at the same time we’re not finding out about the car.”
He continued: “So, our information on the car itself is very limited because we’ve done so little running, and particularly running at low fuel, because running at low fuel… Fuel acts as a damper to the battery. Honda have limited us very much to how much low fuel running we can do. It just becomes a self-feeding problem.
“And of course it’s using a lot of energy, in the human sense as opposed to the kilowatt sense, on our part to try to work with Honda and to produce the best overall solution, because we can turn around and say, ‘Well, it’s not our problem,’ but it is our problem because ultimately the car is the combination of chassis and PU.”
Why Honda has struggled to rebuild under the new regulations
Questions in the press conference also turned to the wider context of Honda’s return and why the manufacturer has arrived in 2026 on the back foot, despite recent championship success with Red Bull.
Newey explained that the group behind the V6 turbo-hybrid used by Red Bull under the previous regulation cycle is no longer the same one now operating in its power unit division. He added that Honda did not bring back as much of its experienced F1 workforce as Aston Martin expected.
“I think, okay, the first question, a bit of history is important there,” he said.
“Honda pulled out at the end of 2021. They then re-entered the sport, kind of, at the end of 2022, so over roughly a year, a year and a bit, out of competition.
“When they reformed, a lot of the original group had, it now transpires, disbanded and gone to work on solar panels or whatever, and so a lot of the group that reformed are actually fresh to Formula 1. They didn’t bring the experience that they had had previously.
“Plus, when they came back in 2023, that was the first year of the budget cap introduction for engines, so all their rivals had been developing away through ’21, ’22 with continuity, their existing team, and free of budget cap,” he said. “They re-entered with, let’s say, only, I’m guessing, 30% of their original team, and now in a budget cap era, so they started very much on the back foot and unfortunately, they’ve struggled to catch back up.”
A late discovery
Newey revealed Aston Martin only confirmed the scale of the staffing issue late last year, when preparations for the 2026 F1 season were already well underway.
“We only really became aware of it in November of last year when Lawrence, Andy Cowell and myself went to Tokyo to discuss rumours starting to suggest that their original target power they wouldn’t achieve for race one, and out of that came the fact that many of the original workforce had not returned when they restarted. So, no is the answer.”
What to expect from Aston Martin this season
“It’s very difficult to forecast at the moment,” Newey said when asked about the worst-case scenario for Aston Martin if the issues continue.
He confirmed that the vibration issue remains the main concern for now, but warned that there is no quick fix in sight.
“I think there’s a very clear action on Honda to try to reduce the vibration which is emanating from the PU,” he said. “They are working on that. It’s not going to be a quick fix because this involves fundamental balancing and damping projects that they will need to conduct.
“I can’t comment how quickly they can achieve that, but that has to be the main drive. Once they’ve got past that, then they can really start to concentrate on performance, but at the moment this vibration issue is sucking all energy in every area.”
Team feels the strain behind the scenes
Newey also emphasised the human cost of the 2026 Australian GP weekend scramble.
“I mean, as I said, emotionally, I mean our mechanics were up until four o’clock this morning,” he said. “So of course they’re on their knees. The factory has been offering a lot of support, so it’s something we really need to try to get on top of as quickly as possible.”
Asked whether he would have preferred to retain Mercedes as Aston Martin’s engine supplier instead of switching to Honda, Newey refused to entertain hindsight and instead pointed to the work ahead.
“I think we are where we are with Honda,” he replied. “Obviously, our focus now is to work with Honda to get to the best possible place.
“Being realistic, this season is first of all, as I mentioned, getting on top of this vibration problem so we can run reliably, and from there to see how much performance they can add to the combustion engine in particular.
“Then at the same time, of course, Honda needs to start working on the ’27 engine because it’s clear that a very large step in combustion engine power is needed for ’27, and that has to be their sole focus.”
