Honda unlock performance with under the radar engine update
· Yahoo Sports
Aston Martin Honda secured their best result of 2026 in Sepang, with Fernando Alonso fending off Lando Norris to cross the line in P8.
The Spaniard was competitive throughout the weekend, qualifying in a season-best P12 before climbing the field on Sunday – overcoming a strategic error by starting the race on dry tyres.
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To some extent, the AMR26’s aerodynamic efficiency played an important role – something which has been a relative strength since the Hungary upgrade.
However, the Honda engine was slightly stronger than in previous rounds, crucial at a circuit like Kuala Lumpur with several long straights. This was thanks to an ADUO upgrade that went under the radar.
| Source: Lastwordonsports.com - Jaden Diaz-NdisangAston Martin and Honda’s fine-tuning
It was the Dutch GP that saw Honda introduce their first long-awaited upgrade via ADUO – the FIA’s mechanism for Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities.
There was intense speculation about how much performance this upgrade would unlock – with the consensus being that this updated power unit was three tenths better than its predecessor.
However, the Japanese engine is still over a second off the pace, something which is particularly painful at more energy-demanding circuit layouts.
After bringing their ADUO upgrade in Zandvoort, Honda explained there would be no more big upgrades for 2026. This has been the case, with the factory in Sakura focusing on fundamental changes to their design for 2027.
With that said, Honda also outlined they would introduce small updates in 2026 if they did not take resources away from their development for next year.
Honda managed to find an improvement that met this criteria, via the introduction of a turbocharger in Madrid:
“So Zandvoort is the first event we introduced the spec 2 engine. Then we believed there was still room to improve performance by changing calibration and, we have been working on the area to improve performance.
“It’s not a big improvement from calibration,” he revealed to the media. “But we keep working to find some small performance gain.
“In Madrid and also Baku, we introduced [an] updated turbocharger using ADUO 2. We found some room to improve on boost following, the main effect on driveability.
“So we introduced an updated turbocharger to improve boost following and we confirmed the effect in Baku where boost following is quite important.”
| Source: Lastwordonsports.com - Jaden Diaz-NdisangBig changes for 2027, optimisation of current packageFundamentally, the second Honda ADUO update was relatively small and focused more on efficiency than pure horsepower.
However, just because an update is relatively small in terms of lap-time does not mean it should not be pursued. Honda’s strategy until their big engine changes for 2027 is to optimise their current operating systems and find any lap-time that is within each.
Shintaro Orihara, Honda’s Chief Engineer, outlined a similar sentiment:
“So the updated turbocharger will help driveability, but also give us some gain on energy management.
“Still, I’m talking not a big number, [it is] still a small number. But we will keep pushing to find that type of small improvement.”
Overall, Aston Martin are optimistic about their chances in Singapore this weekend, given that Honda’s limitations will be less hurtful at a circuit dominated by low-speed corners.
Of course, Aston Martin are not satisfied with being occasional points contenders. The British team have not received hundreds in millions of investments to be so far away from the front-runners.
Still, the Silverstone-based operation’s mid-season development has been commendable. Honda have also proven capable of recovering a significant engine deficit, even (in the late 2010s) at a time when the top manufacturers were not restrained by ADUO and budget cap restrictions.
Therefore, any signs of life will be interpreted as reasons to expect a meaningful step forward from Adrian Newey’s team in 2027.
Featured image: Aston Martin F1 Team Media Portal