Honda Racing Corporation has pushed back against Adrian Newey’s recent assertions that Aston Martin only learned of significant issues with Honda’s Formula 1 power unit development in November 2025, with HRC president Koji Watanabe calling the situation “a misunderstanding.” The clarification comes after Newey’s comments during the 2026 season opener weekend in Melbourne drew considerable attention to Honda’s F1 preparations.
Speaking in Australia, the legendary designer revealed that Aston Martin remained unaware of Honda’s F1 project difficulties until a November 2025 meeting in Tokyo involving team owner Lawrence Stroll, CEO Andy Cowell, and himself. “We only really became aware of it in November of last year when Lawrence, Andy Cowell and myself went to Tokyo to discuss rumours starting to suggest that their original target power they wouldn’t achieve for race one,” Newey explained, adding that they discovered “many of the original workforce had not returned when they restarted.”
The revelation appears particularly striking given that the Honda-Aston Martin partnership was officially announced in May 2023, suggesting nearly two and a half years passed before the team fully understood their engine supplier’s situation. Newey’s comments implied Aston Martin entered the agreement without complete knowledge of what they were committing to, though team sources indicate the reality involves more complexity and several leadership changes within the organization.
When questioned about Newey’s statements at Suzuka, Watanabe offered a different perspective on the timeline concerns. “Yes, basically I think that it’s a misunderstanding,” the Honda Racing Corporation president stated. “Basically, our policy is to rotate the engineers of the motorsport [projects] regularly to mass production or more advanced technologies like jet, eVTOL, hydrology or something like that. So that is [part of the explanation], we continued to rotate from the beginning.”
Watanabe acknowledged that rebuilding Honda’s F1 organization required significant time but expressed confidence in their current capabilities. “Also, as I said, to rebuild the organisation took a bit of time. That was his worry, I think, but now we have sufficient organisation and talent,” he explained, suggesting that any earlier concerns about staffing and development progress have been resolved as Honda prepares for their return to Formula 1 competition.