Honda breaks silence on Aston Martin’s ‘secret’ engine upgrade ahead of Dutch GP

The Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer, who has regularly addressed the media amid the challenging situation Honda has faced with its power unit supplied to Aston Martin, offered a glimpse into the changes made to the engine and what could be expected from the Silverstone-based outfit at the next race in Zandvoort.

Speaking in a quick-fire interview shared by Honda on its social media channels, Orihara revealed that the team has largely focused on improving overall combustion engine performance through the development of its B-spec engine. The Japanese motorsport chief also explained that Honda had a lengthy list of areas to address in its efforts to improve the power unit for Aston Martin.

“We focus on improving engine performance to make combustion faster. So it's kind of a secret, but I can disclose a little bit. We changed the pre-chamber to make combustion faster, and also we changed the piston shape to get good combustion. Also, we modified some lubrication systems to reduce friction. So we had quite a big list to improve engine performance,” Orihara stated.

Further doubling down on what can be expected from the changes made to the new power unit, Orihara admitted that Honda achieved its targets with the new engine before expressing his confidence in the work carried out by the HRC Sakura Factory team.

He also revealed his excitement about seeing the new power unit in action when Aston Martin takes to the track at the Dutch Grand Prix. “We achieved our target, and I'm confident in what the HRC Sakura Factory guys achieved for the spec 2 engine. We are excited to bring the new spec engine to the Netherlands, and we will see where we are.”

Aston Martin and power unit supplier Honda have largely found themselves in the crosshairs of scrutiny and criticism following a largely below-par start to the 2026 campaign. The team, which many expected to challenge at the front of the field, kicked off the season with several reliability issues plaguing its AMR26, as well as its power unit.

However, at the last race in Hungary, the team debuted a spec-B chassis, which saw both drivers, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, move ahead of much of the backmarker field to finish the race in 12th and 13th positions, respectively.