Aston Martin 2026: Honda Problems and Results | Formula Dream
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Aston Martin's 2026 season, measured: seven points, twenty cars unclassified and the Honda vibration problem
Aston Martin have scored seven points in nineteen races of 2026, and twenty of their thirty-eight cars have ended unclassified. The cause, according to Adrian Newey, is vibration from Honda's new power unit. Every race for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, and what comes next.
Two thirds of the way through the Chinese Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso withdrew from the race. He had been overcome by discomfort from how much his car was shaking.
That is the Aston Martin 2026 season in one moment. Nineteen races in, the team has 7 points, all of them Alonso's, and 20 of its 38 race entries have ended unclassified, the worst record on the grid by a distance. Lance Stroll has been classified six times. An Aston Martin has started last on the grid ten times. Both cars retired in Baku, Stroll after seven laps and Alonso after twenty. Then came the team's best afternoon of the year, in the wet at Sepang: Alonso eighth from twelfth on the grid, Stroll twelfth. And then Mexico City, where both cars were out inside the first seven laps.
The cause is not a mystery. Adrian Newey, now in full control of the team, has pinned it on vibration from Honda's new power unit, and Honda has said there will be no major engine upgrade until 2027.
The drivers' own words on it are in our archive: every message Fernando Alonso exchanged with his engineer on air this season, from the Canadian Grand Prix onward, is on Fernando Alonso's team radio page.
Every race of their 2026 season
The first seven rounds:
Round
Grand Prix
Alonso
Stroll
1
Australian
Retired
Not classified
2
Chinese
Retired
Retired
3
Japanese
18th
Retired
4
Miami
15th
17th
5
Canadian
Retired
15th
6
Monaco
10th
Retired
7
Barcelona
Retired
Retired
Finishing positions in each Grand Prix. Bold marks a points finish.
Rounds 8 to 19:
Round
Grand Prix
Alonso
Stroll
8
Austrian
18th
Retired
9
British
18th
19th
10
Belgian
19th
Retired
11
Hungarian
14th
13th
12
Dutch
9th
Retired
13
Italian
Retired
Retired
14
Spanish (Madrid)
17th
Retired
15
Azerbaijan
Retired
Retired
16
Bahrain (at Sepang)
8th
12th
17
Singapore
16th
Retired
18
United States
16th
15th
19
Mexico City
Retired
Retired
Stroll ran to the end in Australia but completed too few laps to be classified.
The season in numbers
7 points: tenth for Alonso at Monaco, ninth at Zandvoort and eighth at Sepang, his season's best. Stroll has not scored; his best is twelfth, also at Sepang. Alonso's season, and his future, are measured in Fernando Alonso's 2026.
20 of 38 entries unclassified, 53%. The next worst team, Cadillac in its first season, is at 37%. The whole grid is counted in every 2026 F1 retirement.
Stroll: 12 unclassified from 17 races. Alonso: 6.
9 times last on the grid: Stroll seven times, Alonso twice. Sepang, twelfth and fourteenth, was by far their best Saturday.
First finish of the season: round 3. Alonso took the flag at Suzuka. Miami, round 4, was the first race both cars finished.
The problem: vibration
Aston Martin's trouble began before the season did. In pre-season testing the car struggled to run, with early breakdowns linked to communication failures between the power unit and the chassis. Then came the vibration.
Newey's explanation is precise: "The PU, the combination of the ICE and possibly the MGU as well, is the source of the vibration. It's the amplifier. The chassis is, in that scenario, the receiver." The shaking has been blamed for damaging other components in the car, so a power unit problem does not stay in the power unit.
It also reaches the drivers. In pre-season, Alonso said he could manage about 25 consecutive laps before risking nerve damage in his hands, and Stroll put his own limit at 15. China was the race where that stopped being a theory.
What the radio sounds like at the back
At Zandvoort, Alonso scored the team's best result of the year, ninth. His engineer's message afterwards was as much for the factory as for him:
Fernando AlonsoAston Martin · Dutch Grand Prix 2026 · Race · 17:14:06 local
EngineerWell done Fernando, that was a great drive, very disciplined and a great boost for everybody down at Silverstone. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks to you guys, everyone at Silverstone. Amazing. A lot to come to guys. And more to come I know. Thank you.
"Well done Fernando, that was a great drive, very disciplined and a great boost for everybody down at Silverstone."
In the same race, before retiring, Lance Stroll questioned a strategy call:
Lance StrollAston Martin · Dutch Grand Prix 2026 · Race · 16:10:20 local
DriverI don't understand why you boxed
Engineerme,
Driverman. Like, we said that the Cadillacs would be a problem. We didn't.
EngineerI understood, Lance. We thought we were struggling so much on the soft. We thought the hard would give us better performance. I think your pace now is going to be good. But that was the choice we took at the time.
"Like, we said that the Cadillacs would be a problem." His engineer: "We thought we were struggling so much on the soft. We thought the hard would give us better performance." Every message from that race is in our Dutch Grand Prix 2026 race radio archive.
What comes next
Not much, this season. Honda's chief engineer Shintaro Orihara has said there will be no major power unit step before the first race of 2027, and that even then the aim is to reduce the gap to Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Ford rather than close it. Newey has said Honda needs "a very large step in combustion engine power".
On the chassis side, the upgrades brought to Hungary and Zandvoort are the last aerodynamic development planned for this car. A weight-saving programme is due to be finished around Baku, and from then on the team runs the final version of the 2026 car.
In Austin both cars finished, a lap down, Stroll fifteenth from last on the grid and Alonso sixteenth. Mexico City was the opposite. Alonso was called in to retire on lap 6 and Stroll stopped at turn 6 a lap later, bringing out a virtual safety car; the day before, in qualifying, Alonso had been told to stop on track:
Fernando AlonsoAston Martin · Mexico City Grand Prix 2026 · Qualifying · 15:08:20 local
DriverI don't have any damage, why I shouldn't stop? You want to stop? I'm in the pit entry.
"Stop the car now, stop the car now." Four rounds remain: Sao Paulo, where rain has closed the gaps before, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. The Sao Paulo times are in our Sao Paulo GP 2026 preview, and the whole table is in the 2026 standings.
What this measures, and what it does not
Results and grid positions come from formula1.com's official results and starting grids, and match the championship standings after the Mexico City Grand Prix.
An unclassified car includes crashes as well as failures, and follows the official classification. The timing data records that a car retired, not why. Where we give a cause, it comes from the team or the driver.
The radio count is what Formula 1 broadcast, not everything said. Our 2026 radio begins at the Canadian Grand Prix, so the China withdrawal is not in our archive.
Frequently asked questions
Why is Aston Martin so slow in 2026?
The team has blamed vibration from Honda's new power unit, which has been blamed for damaging other components and affected the drivers, alongside a combustion engine that Adrian Newey says needs a very large step in power. Honda has said its next major upgrade will not arrive until 2027.
How many points does Aston Martin have in 2026?
Seven after the Mexico City Grand Prix, all scored by Fernando Alonso: tenth at Monaco, ninth at Zandvoort and eighth at Sepang.
Why did Fernando Alonso retire from the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix?
He withdrew at about two thirds distance after being overcome by discomfort from the car's excessive vibration.
Will Aston Martin improve in 2026?
Not significantly. The team has finished its aerodynamic development for this car, and Honda has ruled out a major power unit upgrade before 2027.
Sources
Results, grid positions and points: Formula 1 timing data via FastF1 and formula1.com results, matching the championship standings published after the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix
Vibration, Newey's explanation and the China withdrawal: PlanetF1
Every radio message quoted: our own team radio archive
Hear it from the car
When a car is struggling, the radio is where you hear it first: the complaints, the strategy arguments, the moment a driver says he cannot go on.
The Formula Dream app plays live driver radio as it is broadcast, transcript beside the audio, and collects every FIA document of the weekend as it is published, including the power unit element changes that come with a season like this one. There is also a live timing Dashboard, currently in beta.
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