Honda sees ‘good progress’ on reliability side after Aston Martin was able to complete the full distance with both cars in 2026 F1 Miami GP.
Following on from the full distance covered by Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in Japanese GP, the Silverstone-based team managed to complete full distance with both the Spaniard and Lance Stroll in last weekend’s 2026 F1 Miami GP, without any major reliability issue.
Aston Martin happy with Honda after 2026 F1 Miami GP
They already saw through the F1 sprint race on Saturday and then managed to complete the Sunday’s race with both cars in a big achievement, considering the troubled start to new era with Honda in 2026 F1 season. The countermeasures to limit the vibrations also worked to a larger extent.
“So, I think we are happy with it and I think our partner wants to do more,” said Aston Martin’s Mike Krack, when speaking in a print media session following the 2026 F1 Miami GP. Honda’s Shintaro Orihara termed it as ‘good progress’, after getting a confirmation that the countermeasures worked well in Miami.
Honda sees good progress with countermeasures
“Yes, so, after Japanese Grand Prix, I mentioned HRC and Aston Martin worked very hard to bring countermeasures here,” said Orihara in the same chat. “We confirmed them working well and also, as a driver, give us positive comments.
“That’s kind of good progress for Aston Martin and Honda. That’s good progress,” summed up Orihara. It is a first step in the right direction for the F1 team and engine manufacturer. Post Japan, the Japanese manufacturer kept AMR26 at its Sakura base for evaluation with the car and engine together.
Focus on energy management, drivability now
They warned that the work was largely to limit vibrations and not bring any performance at this stage. Alonso finished 15th, while Stroll was 17th in F1 Miami GP. With the first hurdle crossed, they can now focus on energy management and drivability, to improve its power unit on the whole.
“So, we have completed full race distance and also sprint race distance without any major reliability issue,” continued Orihara. “That is good progress. Then, as you mentioned, next focus point, we can focus to optimise our data setting for energy management and also drivability. There is still a lot of room to improve on our power unit. That’s next step for us.”
