Aston Martin has only two working batteries left for its new Honda Formula 1 engine and is already in a “scary place” with reliability after just one free practice session at the 2026 Australian Grand Prix.
Power unit problems prevented Fernando Alonso participating in FP1 in Melbourne, while Lance Stroll only completed three slow laps before also having to stop.
Team principal Adrian Newey confirmed these stoppages were caused by a “fresh problem” with how Honda’s battery communicates with its management system, rather than the ongoing severe vibrations that severely limited the car’s running in pre-season testing.
Newey also confirmed the team has only two working batteries left and that no more can be flown in because Honda currently has no spares, meaning further failures will eliminate the team from the first grand prix of the new season.
“We are short on batteries,” Newey said. “We’ve only got two batteries left, the two that are in the car. So if we lose one of those, then it’s obviously a big problem. We’ve got to be very careful on how we use the batteries.
“We came here with four batteries. We’ve had conditioning problems, or communication problems, with two of those batteries, which means as we sit here today, we’ve only got two operational batteries.
“That, given our kind of rate of battery damage, is quite a scary place to be in.
“Obviously we’re hopeful that we can get through the weekend and start two cars and so on and so forth, but it’s very difficult to be concrete at the moment about that.”
Beyond Aston Martin’s immediate reliability concerns, Newey also confirmed that the new Honda engine is significantly down on power even if it can be made to run reliably, saying Honda needs to target “a very large step” for next season.
“It’s very difficult to forecast at the moment,” Newey said when asked about the worst case scenario for Aston Martin. “At the moment, this vibration issue is sucking all energy in every area. So it’s something we really need to try to get on top of as quickly as possible.
“I think there’s a very clear action on Honda to try to reduce the vibration emanating from the PU. It’s not going to be a quick fix because it involves fundamental balancing and damping projects that they will need to conduct.
“I can’t comment how quickly they can achieve that, but that has to be the main drive. Once they’ve got past that, then they can really start to concentrate on performance.
“Being realistic, this season is first of all, as I mentioned, getting on top of this vibration problem so we can run reliably, and from there to see how much performance they can add to the combustion engine in particular.
“Then at the same time, Honda needs to start working on the ’27 engine, because it’s clear that a very large step in combustion engine power is needed for 27 and that has to be their sole focus.”
