Aston Martin make 'solar panel' claim over disappearing Honda workforce

Adrian Newey has shared a crucial insight into why he believes Honda has struggled to get up to speed at the start of the 2026 season.

Aston Martin has joined forces with the Japanese manufacturer for the start of the sport's new era under fresh technical regulations, with Honda supplying power units to the Silverstone-based squad.

However, reliability issues have put it severely on the backfoot as major vibrations from the engine have curtailed its pre-season preparations.

Honda last bowed out of the sport in 2021 when it won the drivers' championship with Max Verstappen in dramatic fashion.

But as Aston Martin looked to rekindle that title-winning experience, it discovered that many of those who were part of Red Bull's success story had since moved on to different projects.

“A bit of history is important there,” Newey told the media including RacingNews365.

“Honda pulled out at the end of 2021. They then re-entered the sport at the end of 2022, so over roughly a year, a year and a bit, out of competition. 

“When they reformed, a lot of the original group had, it now transpires, disbanded and gone to work on solar panels or whatever, and so a lot of the group that reformed are actually fresh to Formula 1. 

“They didn’t bring the experience that they had had previously.”

As Honda worked on the power unit, Aston Martin continued to build towards the sport's new era with heavy investement a brand new factory at Silverstone.

According to Newey, it was only discovered that there were issues with the Honda engine as the 2025 campaign entered its final stages.

And when asked by RacingNews365  if Aston Martin was aware of the personnel shift prior to signing a deal with Honda, Newey replied: “No, we weren’t. 

“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.

“Out of that came the fact that many of the original workforce had not returned when they restarted. So, no is the answer.”

Newey also suggested that Honda's struggles stem from its late commitment to return to the sport, which saw it start development right as budget cap restrictions came into effect.

“Plus, when they came back in 2023, that was the first year of the budget cap introduction for engines,” he said. 

“All their rivals had been developing away through 2021, 2022 with continuity, their existing team, and free of the budget cap.

“They re-entered with, let’s say only, I’m guessing, 30 per cent of their original team, and now in a budget cap era, so they started very much on the back foot and unfortunately, they’ve struggled to catch back up.”