Honda’s new-specification power unit has run on-track for the first time during an Aston Martin filming day in Hungary, in preparation for its planned race debut at the Dutch Grand Prix.
It is due to complement a major car upgrade package introduced by Aston Martin at last weekend’s Budapest round, with the AMR26 absorbing no fewer than 16 developments.
Those changes helped Fernando Alonso secure the squad’s first Q2 appearance of the season, before the Spaniard followed team mate Lance Stroll home in respective P13 and P14 finishes.
After the event, Aston Martin – along with Alpine and Audi – stayed on at the Hungaroring to help Pirelli with tyre testing, before conducting a filming day on Wednesday.
Honda’s Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer, Shintaro Orihara, had already confirmed the manufacturer’s plans while reviewing their Hungarian race weekend.
“In Hungary, we have been supporting the team with the power unit integration,” he said, amid the sweeping changes to the AMR26. “We’ve also been able to collect vital data, which will help us come the next race.
“We will now take the important step of introducing our new-spec power unit in the Netherlands.
“Before then, during Wednesday’s filming day, we will run the new engine in the AMR26 for the first time, before the summer shutdown commences.”
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Honda’s F1 operation confirmed to F1.com that the new engine has indeed hit the track during the filming day, with attention now turning towards more running at Zandvoort in just over three weeks’ time.
Aston Martin’s Chief Trackside Officer, Mike Krack, recently explained how the team and Honda are now working together much more efficiently following the difficult start to their relationship in early-2026.
“It’s easy to point the finger, but we sat together and we said, ‘We are in this together. We need to work hard to get out of it together’,” explained Krack, with the outfit cut adrift of the pack at most tracks so far.
“We knew that there would be a lot of difficult moments. We had more than one meeting where we discussed this, and I think it improved the relationship big time – in the garage, in the engineering office, and also in the whole technical collaboration between [Aston Martin’s factory in] Silverstone and [Honda’s headquarters in] Sakura.
“Believe me, it was tough, but it is something that you have to go through, and then you improve from there.
“I think we need to be grown up, we need be professional, in such situations, and we need to get ourselves out of it. If we manage to be in the game again very soon, then I think we can maybe sit together, look back at these last six months, and take all the positives that we learned from it.”
