The new engine
The 2026 season has proven to be a real disaster for Aston Martin and Honda, with the Japanese manufacturer’s Power Unit being uncompetitive and criticized for its unreliability. In recent months, however, the manufacturer has made efforts to provide the British team with a more powerful engine, such as the introduction of the SPEC 2 power unit from the Dutch GP, but not only that.
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The change
Following the recent Spanish GP, Honda announced the promotion of Yoichiro Fukao to Large Project Manager, succeeding Tetsushi Kakuda from October 1st, who until now has led the development of the Power Unit. An organizational change aimed at transferring technical know-how to the new generation of engineers in view of the introduction of new regulations in 2027, with Honda’s mission to increase its competitiveness.
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For Fukao, it will be yet another challenge at Honda, where he joined in 2002. Since then, the Japanese engineer has worked in several departments both in Formula 1 and MotoGP, reaching the most recent roles of Deputy Head of the F1 project and Head of the software division.
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