Honda's New Engine Debuts in Aston Martin at the Hungaroring, First Run in AMR26
Third driver Jak Crawford completed 200 kilometres on demo tyres, with the new power unit specification expected to debut at the Dutch Grand Prix in late August.
Third driver Jak Crawford completed 200 kilometres on demo tyres, with the new power unit specification expected to debut at the Dutch Grand Prix in late August.
Honda's new power unit specification took to the track for the first time on Wednesday, 29 July 2026, aboard the Aston Martin AMR26 during a filming day at the Hungaroring. This was confirmed by Honda's F1 operations team to Live F1 (TG), stressing that it was preparation for the planned race debut at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, expected around 23 August 2026.
Aston Martin's third driver, Jak Crawford, was behind the wheel, tasked with covering a total of 200 kilometres on demonstration tyres, a day after the team-alongside Alpine and Audi-assisted Pirelli with tyre testing on the same circuit. As reported by Formula 1 FIA (TG), the new Japanese engine, equipped with upgrades approved by the FIA, was thus installed and verified under real-world conditions for the first time before the summer break.
The filming day followed Aston Martin's introduction of an extensive upgrade package at the Hungarian Grand Prix (25-26 July 2026), which included as many as 16 developments on the AMR26. These changes helped Fernando Alonso secure his first Q2 appearance of the season, but in the race both he and teammate Lance Stroll finished in modest positions: Alonso P13 and Stroll P14.
Honda's track-side leader and chief engineer, Shintaro Orihara, had outlined plans during the Hungarian weekend. "In Hungary, we supported the team with the integration of the power unit," he told Live F1 (TG). "We also managed to gather vital data that will help us at the next race. Now we will take an important step by introducing our new power unit specification in the Netherlands. Before that, during Wednesday's filming day, we will run the new engine in the AMR26 for the first time, ahead of the summer break."
His words were confirmed on Wednesday when a spokesperson for Honda's F1 operations informed the official Formula 1 website that the new engine had indeed completed its first kilometres on track. All focus now turns to Zandvoort and the race debut in just over three weeks.
Aston Martin's track-side chief, Mike Krack, recently described how the relationship between the team and the Japanese manufacturer has matured significantly after a difficult first few months of 2026.
"It's easy to point fingers, but we sat down together and said, 'We're in this together. We have to work hard to come out of it together,'" Krack's words were reported by Live F1 (TG). "We knew there would be plenty of tough moments. We had more than one meeting discussing this, and I think it has greatly improved the relationship-in the garage, in the engineering office, and also across the entire technical collaboration between Silverstone and Honda. Believe me, it was tough, but it's something you have to go through, and then you improve from there."
Krack added that he demanded professionalism and maturity from those involved: "I think we have to be adults, we have to be professional in such situations, and we have to dig ourselves out of it. If we manage to be back in the game soon, then I think we can sit down together, look back on these last six months, and take away everything positive that we learned from it."
While this story has no direct Croatian participants, F1 remains an extremely popular sport in Croatia, and technological breakthroughs like these regularly attract the attention of local speed enthusiasts.
