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Red Bull Racing and Aston Martin were expected to be rivals on track during the 2026 Formula 1 season, although the early signs in testing suggest that might not be the case.
Aston Martin poached Adrian Newey after he decided to leave Red Bull in 2024, but the Milton Keynes-based team have bounced back brilliantly from that loss.
Red Bull and Aston Martin have both switched power unit suppliers this year, with Laurent Mekies’ team going in-house for the first time, while Lawrence Stroll has managed to convince Honda to return to Formula 1.
Prove us wrong: Fernando Alonso’s faith in Adrian Newey is misguided this season after testing woes
Stroll’s decision to switch from Mercedes power units to Honda looks like a disaster right now; the Japanese manufacturer is on the back foot at this early stage of the campaign.
It turns out that Honda’s struggles might be directly linked to Red Bull’s entry into the power unit race.
READ MORE: All to know about Aston Martin F1 Team from team principal to lineage
Honda have lost a ‘significant portion’ of power unit staff to Red Bull ahead of the 2026 season
A report from Motorsport has shared more of the issues that Aston Martin are facing going into 2026.
When Red Bull’s partnership with Honda ended, they decided to move many of their staff away from Formula 1 onto other projects, before Aston Martin convinced them to U-turn on that decision.
Unfortunately, Honda still haven’t completed the migration of their best engineers back onto the F1 project, despite Lawrence Stroll personally bankrolling some of the work going on at their factory in Japan.
Honda launched their engine before testing, but have had to limit its capabilities in Bahrain due to overheating concerns, and the power unit requires far more cooling than any of its rivals.
Name the one driver you think is most likely to lose their F1 seat in 2026 👇
Aston Martin would have hoped that having exclusive access to Honda’s engines would have been a benefit, but right now, it’s limiting how much data they can collect, putting them even further on the back foot.
It’s believed a ‘significant portion’ of Honda’s personnel left the program to either join Red Bull or move into different jobs entirely at the end of 2020 when their management team originally ended the F1 project.
That’s now coming back to haunt them, despite Honda announcing just over a year later that they would return with a hybrid power unit in 2026. It’s also been suggested that the engineers initially put on the Aston Martin engine project were ‘almost starting from scratch’, such was their lack of experience in the required areas.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford links
Aston Martin failing to convince in 2026 despite expensive personnel and facility overhaul
Stroll has put billions into the improvement of Aston Martin, including expanding their factory and building a new state-of-the-art wind tunnel.
Newey was the headline signing from Red Bull, but Andy Cowell was wanted by every team in the paddock and is now expected to leave at the end of 2026, and Enrico Cardile was poached from Ferrari.
Aston Martin’s new in-house gearbox looks to be in trouble as well, adding to the woes that Newey is having to deal with.
Fernando Alonso is adding more stress to the Aston Martin cause as he watches what could be his final chance to win a world championship evaporate before a wheel has turned in Australia.
It may take time for Aston Martin to put all of these parts with amazing potential together, something that Alonso doesn’t have in abundance, considering he will turn 45 midway through this season.
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