‘Going in the right direction’ – Honda outline progress during ‘long and intense’ gap between Japan and Miami

Honda will introduce further countermeasures aimed at reducing engine vibrations and improving reliability at this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix, having “made some progress” over the five-week break without races.

Japanese automotive giants Honda teamed up with Aston Martin for the 2026 season as the latest piece of a puzzle aimed at turning the Silverstone-based team into race winners and championship challengers.

However, their first three rounds together were hugely challenging, with the AMR26 package – which designer Adrian Newey admitted “came together at the last minute” after production delays – proving to be both slow and unreliable.

So far this year, Aston Martin have only once been classified at the end of a race, courtesy of Fernando Alonso’s 18th-place finish in Japan. Before that, his and team mate Lance Stroll’s running in Australia and China was limited due to severe vibrations.

With these issues in mind, Aston Martin and Honda have been working hard behind the scenes to come up with solutions and apply them for Miami, aided by an extended calendar gap due to the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix being called off.

As the F1 paddock reconvened at the Miami International Autodrome, Honda’s Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer, Shintaro Orihara, offered an update on where the new alliance stands.

“It has been a long but intense period between the races with lots of work happening in collaboration with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team both in Japan and in the UK,” he commented.

“The Japanese Grand Prix showed that the work is going in the right direction and helped us to find the motivation to keep pushing forward.

“After that race, we took the opportunity to keep one of the AMR26 cars on site for further static testing in Sakura for the first time, focusing our efforts on reducing the vibrations and thus increasing reliability.”

Orihara added: “We have made some progress, allowing us to implement further countermeasures in Miami and later in the season.

“Realistically, this progress will not have a visible impact on the power unit performance on track, so we shouldn’t be expecting big jumps forward here.”

Speaking to the world’s media in the paddock, Alonso pointed out how Honda have been “working really hard” to get on top of their problems – and is cautiously optimistic that Aston Martin will be in a “better position” this weekend.

“I think [at Aston Martin’s factory] in Silverstone, about the aero performance, we think that there is pace to unlock there, and [at Honda’s headquarters] in Sakura it’s about two things: reliability and vibrations, and also performance,” said the two-time World Champion.

“It seems that we bring here some solutions for the vibrations and the reliability, and hopefully we see some positive news on the car when we drive it. Hopefully the performance will come in the next step.”

Stroll echoed Alonso’s sentiments, while making clear that there should be plenty more to come from Aston Martin and Honda as the campaign develops.

“I think we know the problems,” said Stroll. “We have an idea of some of the answers, but getting parts made, putting upgrades on the car and fixing all the problems is a different story.

“It doesn’t happen overnight, so this weekend we’re focused on the vibrations. Hopefully that will be better, and then throughout the course of the season we’re just trying to bring as much performance as we can.

“We’re far away, and we know that, but we’re doing our best.”