Gary Anderson heard Adrian Newey make a Honda claim in Australia that ‘won’t have pleased anyone’

Follow us on Google Discover

Gary Anderson has urged Adrian Newey to be “very careful” after hearing the Aston Martin team boss query how honest Honda were about their F1 engine department.

Newey really surprised Anderson with his comments ahead of the Australian Grand Prix last week. The renowned car designer spoke to the media in Melbourne to explain the problems that Aston Martin and Honda have faced amid a bleak start to their new engine partnership.

Aston Martin had hoped that securing an exclusive engine partnership with Honda ahead of the 2026 F1 regulations could help them to fight for wins, and potentially even the title. But Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll did not finish the Australian GP as Honda lack spare parts.

Newey revealed in Australia that Honda only had two working batteries left, having suffered a host of reliability failures throughout testing. It was also only after the two tests in Bahrain that Honda realised their engine is causing severe vibrations that are breaking the battery.

Have Aston Martin already ‘completely ruined’ their relationship with Honda?

Comment

Like or Comment

Have your say Sign-in now for free

Adrian Newey claiming Honda did not tell Aston Martin the real status of their F1 engine project ‘surprised’ Gary Anderson

Newey also suggested at Albert Park that the vibrations from Honda’s V6 engine are passing through Aston Martin’s chassis. The vibrations are even so severe that Alonso and Stroll are at risk of permanent nerve damage if subjected to them for prolonged periods out on track.

READ MORE: Five things we learnt from the 2026 Australian GP after Oscar Piastri crashed

But Anderson was most surprised by Newey’s claim that he and Aston Martin only learnt in November last year how far behind Honda’s F1 engine programme actually was when they began working on a 2026 PU. He does not think Honda will be happy about Newey’s claim.

Anderson has told The Race: “I was surprised not only by how bad things are, but also how Adrian Newey is dealing with those problems in public.

“Drawing on my experiences of working with Honda, you can get a rapid and very successful response out of them once they recognise a problem. However, that was all done behind closed doors. And while there’s nothing wrong with talking about the fact engine vibrations were damaging the batteries, Honda really do not like anyone being disrespectful in public.

“Newey stating that Honda were not clear about the state of their F1 department when the deal for engines was done won’t have pleased anyone at Sakura.

“With his double role, Newey needs to be very careful and open about which hat he is wearing when he does these media sessions. His questions and answers will and should be very different. Team principals can get into the politics of any situation, but as technical director it has to be all about engineering and facts.”

Adrian Newey thinks Honda only retained 30% of the staff who worked on Red Bull’s engine

Newey claimed ahead of the Australian GP that Honda had not made Aston Martin aware of the real status of their F1 engine programme when they signed their exclusive 2026 PU deal in 2023. Honda rebuilt their programme after initially announcing their exit from F1 in 2020.

It was not until Newey, Aston Martin team owner Lawrence Stroll and chief strategy officer Andy Cowell visited Honda in November that they learnt how much the Japanese giant had to rebuild. Newey thinks Honda kept just 30% of the staff who worked on Red Bull’s engine.

On top of that, Honda faced F1’s engine cost cap from the start of their project with Aston Martin. Their rival constructors were able to spend freely on developing their 2026 power units in 2021 and 2022, as the cost cap only came into force in 2023 before Honda’s U-turn.