While everyone in Europe was still fast asleep, Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey rudely woke everyone up in Australia during a press conference together with Honda boss Koji Watanabe. The opening weekend promises to be a sporting drama for the team. “We can only drive a limited number of laps.”
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Coincidence perhaps, but still: the fact that the microphone repeatedly fails during the press moment in the paddock is symbolic of the problems at the team of Newey and associates. Even the audio doesn’t work; it visibly leads to frustration for the Englishman. Although he has even bigger problems than that in the run-up to this weekend.
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‘Fifth team’
“In terms of chassis, we are the fifth team,” Newey emphasizes subtly as the person ultimately responsible for the design of the car. “But we simply have to deal with vibrations.” According to him, these are caused by the power unit. Freely translated: the car’s problems are therefore due to Honda. Newey, diplomatically: “We have every confidence in Honda, our cooperation has only become closer in recent weeks.”
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Vibrations
That Aston Martin, together with new partner Honda, missed the mark for the 2026 season with all the regulation changes, already became clear during the recent test days in Barcelona and Bahrain. But the press conference in Melbourne on Thursday left nothing to the imagination.
“We can only drive a limited number of laps,” Newey states as a result of the vibrations. “A carbon chassis is stiff and it is difficult to absorb those vibrations. So you see that we suffer from that, from mirrors falling off to drivers indicating that it hits their hands and that this can even lead to nerve damage.”
And Watanabe? He reads a written statement and keeps repeating that they are working hard on improvements. Honda remains hopeful and the tide will surely (eventually) turn. But the Japanese also know that this opening weekend will likely be a sporting drama.
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Read everything about the Australian GP here
