Honda acknowledged difficulties in developing the engine.

      The Aston Martin–Honda partnership for 2026 is being touted as potentially championship-winning, and there is no doubt that team owner Lawrence Stroll, who has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the project, is expecting strong results on track. However, Koji Watanabe, president of Honda Racing Corporation, tried to temper expectations ahead of the start of the season, admitting that engineers have encountered certain difficulties in developing the new engine.

      "Given that we don't know what progress the power unit developers competing with us have made, at the moment it's difficult to determine how close we'll be able to get to the targets we've set," Watanabe told Japanese publication Sportiva. "In the development process we are constantly assessing performance gains from integrating various components. Some prove successful, others do not. The situation is mixed.

      To be honest, not everything is going smoothly, as we have difficulties in many areas, but so far nothing catastrophic has occurred — nothing we couldn't cope with.

      Aston Martin wants to build cars that reflect Adrian Newey's vision, and for us the next step will be to adapt the power unit to the car. If that increases our competitiveness and improves our chances of winning, we'll do everything we can."