Aston Martin, what a disappointment
While the other teams on the grid will take advantage of the spring break to focus on performance, Aston Martin seems to be competing in a championship of its own in this regard as well. The Silverstone team is in fact far behind and must set “minimum” goals: having finished a GP for the first time in 2026 (with Fernando Alonso alone) is seen as a step forward, even if it does not allow for a celebratory atmosphere heading towards Miami, in the awareness that the problems are many (mainly related to a **Honda** power unit that is unreliable and even less powerful) and difficult to solve in the short term.
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The Japanese know they have to work very hard to close the obvious gap compared to the competition in terms of power, reliability, and energy management. Honda’s chief engineer Shintaro Orihara knows this well, and yet he has clear ideas about the next steps to be taken at Sakura.
Orihara’s words
“We completed the entire race distance, this is a good step forward in terms of reliability. We are doing our best to improve battery efficiency. At the Sakura plant, we are working hard to improve engine performance and we are putting in a lot of effort to evaluate and optimize energy management“, this was the comment from the Japanese engineer at Suzuka.
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“We also need to develop engine performance from a mechanical point of view, and it will not be a short job“, he added. “We will therefore continue to work hard, improving performance in the background. However, we collected a lot of data during the race, which allowed us to improve drivability and energy management. They will give us useful information ahead of Miami“.
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