The Japanese engine's disadvantage against Mercedes exceeds 5%, worse than estimated, with few improvements expected until mid year, the Silverstone team prefers not to waste time and is already thinking about next season.
Aston Martin's crisis at the start of the 2026 season is deeper than believed, according to the Spanish newspaper Marca, the power unit supplied by Honda has a performance disadvantage of more than 5% compared to the Mercedes engine, which has become the clear reference on the grid. This figure exceeds the 2% to 4% deficit initially foreseen in the FIA's ADUO program, a system designed precisely to help struggling manufacturers close the gap.
The problem is not minor, the AMR26 suffers not only from a lack of power, but also from serious reliability issues derived from the vibrations generated by the Japanese power unit. This complicates life for its drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, who have already seen how the team has drifted away from points paying positions in the first races. To make matters worse, the English team itself admits that the chassis has also not met expectations, so the problem is twofold.
The ADUO program was created by the International Automobile Federation to prevent a manufacturer from dominating without opposition, it allows disadvantaged teams to make changes to their engine homologation, obtain relief on the spending limit and have additional development hours. In theory, Honda would be the main beneficiary of this system, however, the same source indicates that the Japanese manufacturer does not plan to introduce its first updates until the British Grand Prix, the ninth race of the year. Given the magnitude of the problem, it is unlikely that those improvements will have a significant impact on track.
The FIA stipulates that the official evaluation of each engine's performance will be carried out after the Miami, Belgium and Singapore Grands Prix, but the cancellation of the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia has altered the calendar, so the first deadline could be delayed until Monaco. That does not change the diagnosis: Aston Martin is far from the fight.
Faced with this scenario, the Silverstone team has already made a strategic decision, as Adrian Newey anticipated ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, the team does not want to waste time and resources on a project that will hardly yield short term results.
The goal for 2027 is to completely redesign the power unit and the chassis to start next season in a much more competitive position. Meanwhile, Formula 1 is going through a forced break due to the cancellations.
Action will return from May 1 to 3 with the Miami Grand Prix, for Aston Martin, that race will be just another stop on the road to a 2027 that is already shaping up to be their true year of resurgence.