Honda to supply F1 power units for Aston Martin in 2026

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Honda will continue to supply power units to Formula 1 when the rules change for the 2026 season, but it will partner with a new racing team.

On Tuesday night, Honda and Aston Martin announced that Honda Racing Corporation will design, develop and manufacture power units and supply them to the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant racing team for the 2026 Formula 1 season. Honda says it believes the technology of the power unit will have the potential to be applied to mass-produced vehicles.

Aston Martin will handle the design of the rest of the car. Aston Martin currently uses Mercedes-Benz power units, and Honda currently supplies power units to the leading Red Bull Racing teamas well as AlphaTauri.

“One of the key reasons for our decision to accept the new challenge of F1 is that the most important form of racing in the world strives to become a sustainable racing series, which is in line with the direction that Honda is taking. moving towards carbon neutrality, and will become a platform that will facilitate the development of our electrification technologies,” Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said in a statement.

F1 will adopt new power unit rules for the 2026 season. The the fuel will be 100% carbon neutral and the electric motor component will supply three times the power it does today. Formula 1 is developing the fuel with Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, and plans to have it ready in time for that season.

Under the new rules, F1 cars will use a turbo hybrid 1.6-liter V-6 setup, which is the current setup. The new power unit will eliminate the MGU-H motor-generator that recovers exhaust energy through the turbocharger. That leaves the MGU-K engine, which recovers power from the rear brakes, though it will make 469 hp versus the current 160 hp, up from about 20% of a 50/50 split with the engine. One of the keys to performance will be the battery, which will need to be able to deliver high power output quickly. In total, the power unit will still make around 1,000hp, but with increased electric power fuel usage it should drop from around 220lbs today to 154lbs.

F1’s rules will also put a cost limit on the internal combustion component of the power unit, reduce dyno time and limit each car to three power units per season.