The sound of F1 2026 revealed as Honda posts huge update
Honda will partner with Aston Martin from the F1 2026 season.
Honda Racing has posted the first sound of what its F1 2026 engine will sound like, giving a true glimpse into how the new cars will sound.
Honda will be moving from its Red Bull partnership to partner Aston Martin in a factory power unit deal from the 2026 season, and the company has now released how its 2026 power unit will sound.
Listen: F1 2026 engine sound revealed
Posting across Honda Racing’s social media pages, a blank screen was accompanied by Honda’s 2026 power unit moving up and down through the gears – giving a real glimpse into how the next generation of Formula 1 cars will sound.
The 1.6-litre internal combustion engine already in use by Formula 1 has been retained into next season, though the electrical power output has trebled within Formula 1 cars.
Shared on Instagram under the banner ‘The Sound of 2026’, here is a glimpse of what is to come from Honda’s 2026 Formula 1 power unit:
Honda Racing’s President, Koji Watanabe, recently spoke to Aston Martin’s official website to offer an update on the progress of HRC’s power unit, revealing the round-the-clock nature of the work going into the team’s collaboration with Aston Martin – with there being a nine-hour time difference between the UK and Honda’s headquarters in Sakura.
“The relationship between the engineers is very strong now, but my expectation is that it will improve and intensify the deeper we get into the project,” he said.
“The common ground at the start was this winning spirit, and talking to Lawrence [Stroll], or any of the leadership team at the AMR Technology Campus, there has always been this feeling of being one team. That’s very important, the ‘one team’ philosophy.
“At the moment, there are Aston Martin Aramco engineers working at HRC Sakura in Japan, and HRC engineers in Silverstone at the AMR Technology Campus.
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“We’re working very closely through this relationship – there’s a huge amount of knowledge and experience flowing between our organisations.
“[Time difference] is something we can turn to our advantage. Japan is awake and working while the UK is sleeping, and vice versa, so the project is moving forward 24 hours a day.
“When anyone comes into work, they can have a new set of results and fresh data delivered from the other side of the world.”
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