Honda HRC chief says Aston Martin alliance must change after troubled start

Honda Racing boss Yasuharu Watanabe admits that “things cannot remain the same” after a harrowing start to life for the Aston Martin and Honda alliance.

Watanabe spoke of daily meetings with Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey, as well as twice-weekly meetings with team owner Lawrence Stroll. But, the collaboration with Aston Martin must be strengthened, Watanabe urges. The Honda CEO, President Mibe, is “aware of the extremely challenging situation”, and having attended the Australian GP, “arranged meetings”, and held talks with Stroll.

Yasuharu Watanabe urges stronger Aston Martin and Honda collaboration

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Aston Martin and Honda are going through some troublesome teething issues.

Neither Fernando Alonso nor Lance Stroll made it to the chequered flag at the season opener in Melbourne.

Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe was on the ground at Albert Park, as was Honda Racing president Yasuharu Watanabe.

“President Mibe arranged meetings not only with us but also with the team, and has been discussing matters with Mr Lawrence Stroll,” Watanabe revealed to Japanese publication as-web.

“President Mibe is aware of the extremely challenging situation, having been briefed on the content shared with the media at the press meeting held in Tokyo on 27 February.

“Being an engineer himself, he offered warm encouragement, including various technical perspectives, urging us to ‘quickly make it competitive’.”

Honda uncovered “abnormal vibrations” back at Bahrain testing. The Japanese manufacturer went into Melbourne hoping that it had found a fix. Newey claimed on Thursday that Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll feared permanent nerve damage – after 25 and 15 laps consecutively respectively – such was the apparent severity of these vibrations.

Alonso told PlanetF1.com and others after the race: “I think Honda thinks the vibrations on the battery are really reduced since Bahrain with some of the modifications, but that didn’t happen to the chassis yet because they need to isolate the battery in a different way.

“I think it will take a little bit more time, but we try to do our best and to do as many laps as possible to help the team.”

Next up for Formula 1 is this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix. After that, it is Honda’s home race at Suzuka.

“I want to ensure that vibration countermeasures are properly implemented before Suzuka and that the power unit can be used without any problems,” Watanabe declared.

“Of course, Sakura will do its part to achieve this, but I think it will also be important to further deepen our cooperation with Silverstone. To that end, as the head of management, I will work to strengthen the organisation.”

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Newey also claimed that with this Honda F1 engine squad, only “30 per cent of their original team” remains. He said that Aston Martin only became aware of Honda’s difficulties late last year.

Watanabe, however, believes that Honda has “fundamentally strengthened the headcount sufficiently”, so “must consider the areas and authority to strengthen”, on top of looking to strengthen, he reiterated, the “collaboration with Aston Martin”.

Watanabe states that Honda is in contact with Newey “every day”, while on “Fridays and Saturdays” there are meetings with Lawrence Stroll.

He added: “Things cannot remain the same.

“We must increase the speed [of development], and that does not just mean increasing the power of the PU. I believe it is about how we develop and accelerate in unison with the car body. We want to work well as one team.”

Additional reporting by Mat Coch

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