Guenther Steiner says ‘amazing’ Honda ‘always come back’ amid 2026 Aston Martin struggles

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Honda have had a horrendous start to life as Aston Martin’s engine supplier in 2026, but Guenther Steiner is backing them to return to their past glory.

The Silverstone outfit’s woeful start to the 2026 F1 season has been well documented. Despite high hopes under Adrian Newey, the team have not got out of Q1, with Fernando Alonso registering their first finish of the season at Suzuka.

Severe vibrations and a lack of power have plagued the team, with Newey stepping back as team principal to focus on the car. Many believe that Aston Martin have a ‘toxic blame culture’, as the finger has been pointed at Honda for their struggles.

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The power unit is certainly lacking pace and is a factor in the team’s disastrous start to 2026. In fact, data shows Aston Martin are currently worse than McLaren Honda in the mid-2010s.

The Japanese manufacturer had an awful time in Woking, producing underpowered engines that saw McLaren glued to the back of the grid. But as Steiner points out, they soon became world champions with Red Bull, and he expects a similar turnaround with Aston Martin.

Guenther Steiner says Honda ‘always come back’

Speaking to SoyMotor, the former Haas F1 boss has been baffled by Honda’s struggles with Aston Martin. But he insists that they ‘always come back’, referencing how quickly they got things right with Red Bull.

“How can they get it this wrong? I don’t know exactly. I think when they decided to stop with the, call it the old regulations, they just sent everybody away and they started from scratch, they started from zero again.

“And then you have to relearn everything, that’s my only thing I can see it because they won four world championships with Red Bull. Think about it. I mean, how good they were, I mean, what good of a job they do.

Did Aston Martin make a mistake dropping Mercedes as engine partners for Honda?

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“And then they come back two, three years later, or they didn’t even go away, they just came back with a new team of people developing a new technology which is different but is not completely different to the old one, and they are nowhere.

“I don’t know how they do it internally, how they put themselves in this position. It’s one of the things, if you’re not there living it, because it’s far away Japan for us, we don’t know, it’s one of those things.

“They try it in different ways, and the thing is, they always come back. I mean, when McLaren left Honda, nobody wanted Honda. Guess what? Two years later, they were a world champion, I think. It’s amazing.”

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

Guenther Steiner admires Fernando Alonso’s ‘persistence’ in F1 amid Aston Martin woes

Honda cannot be solely held accountable for the issues at Silverstone this season. Aston Martin are losing 20kph in the corners, which would suggest that the AMR26 chassis could be worse than the power unit, despite Newey’s claims that it was the fifth-best on the grid.

Aston Martin staff doubt the 2026 car is ‘solvable’, which will not be what drivers Alonso and Lance Stroll will want to hear. The former has already been through a torrid time with Honda at McLaren, and now he is suffering deja vu at Aston Martin.

There are some doubts as to whether the two-time champion will stay in F1 at the end of 2026, and while Steiner did not say that he will retire, he does admire how Alonso keeps going in the sport: “I think Fernando is at the point, I think if next year, the car is not good…

“I mean, Fernando, he’s a champion, at some stage he says, ‘How long do I do it?’ And I admire his persistence because it cannot be easy for him. He’s such a champion and trying so hard.”