Honda believes that the partnership with Aston Martin is evolving consistently in Formula 1, but believes that the performance shown by the team at the Hungarian GP was also influenced by the characteristics of the Hungaroring track.
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“This is partly due to the characteristics of the circuit,” said Koji Watanabe, president of Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), to as-web.jp. Still, he highlighted that the collaboration between Honda and Aston Martin is “steadily improving,” with the development of “a clear shared understanding of how to improve the overall performance” of the car as a complete package.
In Hungary, Aston Martin presented the AMR26 specification B with a package of 16 updates. Fernando Alonso advanced to Q2 in qualifying, while Lance Stroll finished the race in 13th and Alonso was 14th. The result represented a significant improvement after stages in which the team had lost ground to the midfield pack.
The next step of the partnership will take place at the Dutch Grand Prix, when Honda will debut its revised power unit. The new engine has already been tested in a filming day at Hungaroring after the race, together with the AMR26.
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Although the news for Zandvoort is “centered on the power unit,” Watanabe emphasized that “when making changes, we never develop just one aspect in isolation – both are always developed together.”
Adrian Newey has already confirmed that Aston Martin will also bring new updates to the AMR26 at the Dutch round. “In this regard, we are determined to deliver solid results before the next race in Zandvoort,” concluded Watanabe.
Honda expects the new engine to represent a “reasonably large step forward,” as stated by Shintaro Orihara, general manager of track operations and chief engineer of the manufacturer.
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