Honda reveals 2026 F1 power unit as Aston Martin partnership begins in Tokyo

The RA626H will power Aston Martin F1 in 2026. Credit - Honda

Honda have officially launched their 2026 power unit at a pre-season event in Tokyo in the build-up to their first season with Aston Martin as a full works team. 

Despite initially deciding to leave F1 in 2021, the Japanese manufacturer made a u-turn announcement two years later that they were swapping Red Bull for Aston Martin for the new set of 2026 regulations – leaving Max Verstappen’s team having achieved a total of six world championships since 2018. 

Celebrating their new works partnership with Aston Martin at the Tokyo event, attended by Honda President Toshihiro Mibe, Aston Martin CEO Lawrence Stroll, and F1 President Stefano Domenicali, Honda unveiled their 2026 engine, named as the RA626H. 

While official images ensured some parts of the new power unit were still blurred out, the most striking element of the RA626H was the size of its orange battery pack, emphasising just how revolutionary the 2026 regulations are set to be as F1 moves to a 50/50 split between electrical power and the internal combustion engine (ICE). 

On the side of the V6 unit, and on the front of an Aston Martin green show car, Honda also presented their new corporate logo, a revised ‘H’ that they plan to roll out on all of their vehicles by the beginning of 2027. 

Will Aston Martin be title contenders in 2026? 

Fernando Alonso, Adrian Newey, Lawrence Stroll, and Lance Stroll at the announcement of Newey's arrival in 2024 - Getty Images

After appointing legendary designer Adrian Newey as Team Principal, boasting a state-of-the-art £200 million Silverstone facility, and getting Honda on board as their engine supplier, many have tipped Aston Martin to challenge the likes of Mercedes and McLaren for the title in 2026. 

Speaking at the Tokyo event, Aston Martin boss Stroll expressed confidence that the British team “have all the elements required to fight for victory in the future,” but conceded that taking on the new set of regulations will not be an easy task and they will not really know where they stack up on the grid before the first race. 

"We're all sitting here anxiously waiting to get on track and I really don't think we'll have the answer to that question before we get to Melbourne," Stroll said. 

“And even when we get to Melbourne, you know these rules and regulations will be in place for five years.

Stroll added that he believes it is the first time in F1 history that teams face a new chassis and power unit at the same time, and so plenty of issues will crop up. 

“There'll be reliability issues, there'll be all sorts of things… but we’re very positive.”

Attention turns to Barcelona shakedown

Andy Cowell and Adrian Newey at the 2025 Monaco GP - Getty Images

Next up for Aston Martin is the unofficial, private shakedown that will take place at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona from January 26-30, with the British squad set to reveal the look of their AMR26 on February 9, the last team to do so along with McLaren. 

Then, the official pre-season gets underway with back-to-back tests in Bahrain starting on February 11. 

Highlighting the importance of the tests as Aston attempt to bring all of their new pieces together, Chief Strategy Officer Andy Cowell spoke of similar challenges to Stroll. 

“We've got nine days of track testing before we get to Melbourne, and it will be a challenge to understand the car,” Cowell said. 

“You're trying to understand both reliability and performance, and typically the opening sessions that we run we'll be checking all the systems. There'll be extra sensors on the car and aero rakes, extra sensors on the power unit, to understand the vehicle in its real environment.

“We do lots of testing in Sakura and in Silverstone but the real environment is the race track. But then you need to get into understanding the performance of the car, and that's where the feedback from the driver is key as well as what you read from the sensors.

“We will push and we will learn. We've got a plan already devised but we will adapt day by day based on what we learn.”