Honda responds to 50bhp Aston Martin power gain reports

Honda has played down reports that Aston Martin’s latest power unit upgrade is worth as much as 50bhp, with chief engineer Shinharo Orihara insisting the widely reported figure is “not the real number.”

Aston Martin introduced a significant 16-part upgrade at the Hungarian Grand Prix, and Honda completed a filming day with Aston Martin using its updated engine before introducing it for the Dutch Grand Prix later in August.

Honda responds to reports of Aston Martin 50bhp gain

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Several reports had circulated that Honda had been able to increase its power by as much as 50bhp with its latest update, though that had never been confirmed by Honda itself.

Aston Martin had been largely consigned to the back of the field this season, but with progress in Hungary and an engine update to come, the team will be watched in Zandvoort to see how far it has come.

Reports of a significant gain had been discussed elsewhere, but Honda’s trackside general manager sought to play down the hype surrounding its update.

“I want to have that number, but that is a quite big number,” Orihara told PlanetF1.com and others, when presented with the reported 50bhp figure.

“I can’t describe the detail of power, but my feeling with that is just, no, I don’t think… not the real number.”

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While reports of ‘oscillations’ after FP1 in Hungary were quickly addressed and solved by Honda, Aston Martin gained its best combined result of the season in Budapest, with Fernando Alonso having reached Q2 for the first time this year along the way.

Orihara saw no reason for worry around splitting the introduction of the new Aston Martin power unit, too, with the AMR26 having undergone a significant change last time out.

“From a logistical viewpoint, I don’t think any concern to split the timing, and then a technical viewpoint also, I do not have so much concern to split, but definitely we can learn something before we introduce new power unit,” he explained.

“That is a positive point for us. So, the main target is to gather as much as possible the data from [Hungary] before we introduce the new power unit.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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