Apparently communication between Honda and Aston Martin is experiencing some noise. Koji Watanabe, president of Honda Racing Corporation, claimed that Adrian Newey’s remarks about the Japanese engine supplier’s lack of experience in Formula 1 was a “misunderstanding”.
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The British executive revealed that he was not aware of how inexperienced Honda was with engines until a visit to Tokyo in November 2025. “As a result of this, many of the original employees had not returned when activities resumed,” he said at the time.
The Japanese automaker was supposed to have left had plans to say goodbye to F1 at the end of 2021, but changed its mind in 2023 for the partnership with Aston Martin. However, this sudden decision supposedly left Honda with little experience in F1.
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Then, on Friday, Watanabe stated in Japan that “basically, I think it was a misunderstanding. The basis of our policy is to regularly rotate the automotive engineer to mass production or to more advanced technologies, like jets… or hydrology, or something like that.”
“So, we’ve continued with that rotation from the beginning. Probably, my explanation was not sufficient. And also, of course, as I said, rebuilding the organization took time. So, that was his concern, I think. But now we have sufficient organization and talent,” he added.
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