Honda’s new engine runs cleanly in Hungary test
"We’re way behind, so we can’t afford to wait"
Honda’s upgraded power unit completed its first track running without apparent problems at the Hungaroring on Wednesday, raising hopes that Aston Martin’s chassis breakthrough will soon be matched by a major engine step.
Jak Crawford drove the AMR26 during the permitted 200-kilometre filming day, using the new specification that is scheduled to make its race debut at Zandvoort after the summer break.
The upgrade is rumoured to deliver approximately 40 horsepower more than the previous version. Crucially, there were also no obvious signs of the severe vibration problem that plagued Aston Martin early this season.
Some had questioned why Honda did not introduce the upgrade alongside Aston Martin’s heavily revised chassis at the Hungarian GP, particularly as the engine was already en route to the circuit.
Honda Racing Corporation chief engineer Shintaro Orihara said the timing was simply dictated by development readiness.
"We don’t intentionally separate Aston Martin’s upgrades or make them the same," he told as-web.jp.
"There’s no reason to wait for one upgrade when the other is already ready. Basically, we release the upgrades as soon as they are ready."
"We’re way behind, so we can’t afford to wait."
"The reason we waited until the Dutch GP was because a major upgrade was needed and it was going to take time to achieve."
Aston Martin ambassador Pedro de la Rosa says the new ’B’ chassis already produced encouraging signs in both qualifying and the race in Hungary.
"We made a big leap in qualifying," the former F1 driver told DAZN.
"I have to say that I liked the race even more. There was better race pace than in qualifying."
"In the end, we finished 13th and 14th, and deservedly so, because the only faster car that didn’t finish was Oscar Piastri’s. This is promising."
De la Rosa said Aston Martin had entered the weekend with several unanswered questions because the package had completed no representative long-run testing.
"Good degradation, good race pace - I think it’s promising," said the Spaniard.
"We also hadn’t done long runs with this aerodynamic package, which, being completely new, also has different characteristics in terms of engine and brake cooling."
"There were many questions - ’will we have the correct cooling for driving in traffic?’ Good reliability too."
"I’m happy with that, and good degradation. When you have more downforce, the tyre benefits. We had a lot of degradation in the past, but now it seems we’ve improved in this area."
Most importantly, the track performance matched Aston Martin’s factory predictions.
"The correlation is good, and that’s not just a good feeling, it gives you a lot of optimism for the future," De la Rosa said.
"It’s very valuable because it hasn’t always been like this in the past. Given the start of the season, arriving here with these upgrades is very positive for now and what’s to come."