The Japanese marque has spent the previous six seasons as Pink Bull’s powertrain associate and has achieved success via Max Verstappen’s trio of drivers’ titles, however has renewed its efforts for 2026 as Aston Martin turns into its works group.
With its data of growing V6 inside combustion engines for the present guidelines, Honda has as a substitute elected to pin its main efforts on nailing down {the electrical} infrastructure. This adjustments to a close to 50-50 cut up in ICE and electrical energy underpinned by a 350kW MGU-Okay, whereas the turbo-mounted MGU-H has been omitted from the brand new ruleset.
This differs from Pink Bull’s strategy with its personal in-house powertrain venture, which is now in partnership with Ford because it splits from Honda on the finish of 2025; Pink Bull has began out by growing an all-new ICE from scratch.
“To date every thing goes in keeping with plan. After all, we can not go into an excessive amount of element, however every thing is in step with our personal expectations,” defined HRC president Koji Watanabe in an unique interview with Autosport.
“We’re initially specializing in {the electrical} aspect of the engine, so our focus now’s primarily on the electrical engine components and on the battery.
“This work is totally in step with our personal goals. In parallel, we’re after all growing the inner combustion engine, however at this stage, it’s not but a V6. It’s now a single cylinder.
“To date every thing goes in keeping with plan. After all, we can not go into an excessive amount of element, however every thing is in step with our personal expectations.”
Koji Watanabe, Honda Racing CEO
Photograph by: Motorsport.com / Japan
Though Honda formally left F1 as a full-factory energy unit provider on the finish of 2021, it has retained its partnership with Pink Bull via its racing division HRC and the continued construct of its present energy unit following a freeze to the rules.
Watanabe defined that a lot of Honda’s employees moved to different initiatives following the post-2021 partial exit, necessitating a collection of latest hires to bolster its new 2026 venture.
HRC has additionally registered a brand new firm within the UK, with the intent of servicing and getting ready the brand new 2026-spec powertrains for Aston Martin, though a location is but to be decided. America-based HRC USA (previously Honda Efficiency Developments), which heads up the model’s IndyCar engine venture and Acura’s IMSA efforts, can even turn into concerned.
“Once we introduced that we’d cease our F1 actions, a lot of the engineers left the F1 division. All essential engineers have moved to different initiatives, together with Honda Mobility,” mentioned Watanabe.
“Consequently, we’ve needed to fill all these positions once more, though it’s not fully the identical individuals. Some individuals are nonetheless the identical, but it surely was slightly harder for different positions and wishes at the least slightly time.”
“We’ve registered the [HRC UK] firm, however haven’t selected the precise location but. We registered primarily as a result of we need to rent employees in the UK.
“These issues take time since you typically must cope with a interval of gardening depart. That’s the reason we need to begin hiring employees in England this summer time and have already registered ourselves.”