Lawrence Stroll has already made the worst decision of the 2026 Formula 1 season at Aston Martin

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Aston Martin could conceivably be the slowest team on the grid heading into the Australian Grand Prix at the start of March.

There was a huge amount of excitement and promise surrounding the Aston Martin team before the 2026 season.

Under Andy Cowell and Mike Krack, Aston Martin seemingly abandoned the 2025 season to concentrate on the regulation changes, and the addition of Adrian Newey to their design team was seen as an extremely positive sign.

Williams put in the most laps during the first week of pre-season testing in Bahrain – Is this a reassuring sign after they missed the Barcelona shakedown?

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Many people were taken by surprise when Newey was named Aston Martin team principal, with Cowell moving on to work with the engine side of the business, but it felt like giving more control to someone of his calibre made a lot of sense.

Fast forward to 2026 pre-season testing, and Aston Martin were late to show up to the Barcelona shakedown and the slowest team on the grid in Bahrain.

Chairman and owner Lawrence Stroll will be furious, but a decision he made back in 2023 might be what costs him, Fernando Alonso and his son, Lance, the opportunity to be competitive this year.

READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Aston Martin’s decision to use Honda power units is already the worst decision of 2026

In 2023, it was announced that Aston Martin would stop using Mercedes engines after signing an exclusive deal to use Honda power units for the next era of Formula 1.

Martin Whitmarsh, who was Aston Martin CEO at the time, told the press, via Speedcafe: “Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant is building a team to win in Formula 1.

“Over the last 18 months, I think we’ve been recruiting the right people.

“We’ve been investing in the required facilities and developing the right culture and processes to win. We know, however, that we need strong partnerships.

“It’s a great opportunity to partner with a global motorsport titan like Honda as a works team.

“This is an extremely exciting and important further step for the team.”

Name the one driver you think is most likely to lose their F1 seat in 2026 👇

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At the time, it looked like a stroke of genius. Honda were providing engines for the Red Bull team on their way to the most dominant season in Formula 1 history.

Unfortunately, Honda had already started moving their most important employees off the F1 project by the time they signed the deal with Aston Martin, and many still haven’t returned.

In a season where the hybrid power unit is going to be the most important part of the car, Aston Martin and Honda are lagging a long way behind all of their rivals.

On top of this, the Mercedes engine Aston Martin abandoned could well end up being the dominant power unit during this era of the sport.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Aston Martin F1 team principal Adrian Newey

What Lawrence Stroll said about Honda’s partnership ahead of the 2026 Formula 1 season

Unusually, Honda decided to publicly launch their power unit before the start of testing.

At the event, Stroll told the media, via F1’s official website: “I am delighted to celebrate the start of our partnership with Honda here in Tokyo today.

“Aston Martin Aramco Formula 1 Team and Honda share many values, and those values have brought us together for 2026 and beyond.

“The strong collaboration between the AMR Technology Centre at Silverstone and Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) in Sakura demonstrates the depth of our partnership. We are confident that we have all the elements required to fight for victory in the future, and we have tremendous faith in Honda’s power unit and the engineers behind it.

“Our journey won’t always be easy, and challenges inevitably lie ahead, but winning is what drives both companies forward and together we look forward to many successful years of partnership.”

What followed at Aston Martin’s own launch was a far less positive message. Fans struggled to watch the unveiling of the AMR26 due to livestream issues, and Alonso was quick to downplay expectations.

The Spaniard suggested that Aston Martin wouldn’t be competitive until the second half of the season at least, and with GPS data highlighting how far off the pace Honda’s power unit is, that might be an ambitious goal in itself.