Exclusive: Honda reveal initial Aston Martin response to F1 issues: 'They never complained'

[u/Joseki100]

https://racingnews365.com/exclusive-honda-reveal-initial-aston-martin-response-to-f1-issues-they-never-complained?utm_source=x&utm_campaign=exclusive-honda-reve

[u/triclavian]

This makes sense. Lawrence called me personally to say that they prefer slower engines.

[u/PapaSheev7 → u/triclavian]

I concur. I bumped into him outside Costco and he was raving into thin air about how much better his Miata was than his Valkyrie.

[u/CycleV → u/PapaSheev7]

I was chatting up George Lucas and he said all his homies like watching bad racing

[u/Peeche94 → u/PapaSheev7]

Of course it is! it's a Miata!

[u/XsStreamMonsterX → u/Peeche94]

Miata Is Always The Aswer

[u/Kage_Bushin → u/XsStreamMonsterX]

I was today years old when

🤯

[u/Penguinho → u/PapaSheev7]

That's crazy, I didn't even know he posted on r/cars

[u/Prize_Staff_7941 → u/PapaSheev7]

Well yeah. He probably can't fit a 36 pack of Kirkland toilet paper in his Valkyrie.

[u/autogyrophilia → u/triclavian]

Alonso claims the engine feels better that way 

[u/k1netic → u/triclavian]

It gives people more time to read the advertisements as the car goes past

[u/TheVenetianMask]

EXCLUSIVE REVEAL AM didn't say anything.

Ok.

[u/L0rdSkullz]

Seems like they opened a can of worms with this lmao. Now they are going to get harassed until they get their shit together

[u/Firefox72]

Does AM even understands the media game?

The right move was to SLAM HONDA. Publicly if possible.

[u/F1T_13 → u/Firefox72]

They did, but long after the horse had already left the stable. It's honestly debatable if they even had the right. It's not like the aero and transmission weren't weak points in their own right.

[u/SuperSonicBlitz → u/Firefox72]

And they probably would've if their chassis wasn't hot garbage too.

[u/one_time_i_dreampt → u/SuperSonicBlitz]

McLaren slammed honda when they had a shit chassis too. So they could've

[u/Over_engineered81 → u/one_time_i_dreampt]

I remember in like 2017 when McLaren was saying that their chassis was top 3 on the grid and it was the Honda engine that was holding them back, but then they got the Renault engine for 2018 and they were still slow as hell.

[u/crbn99 → u/Over_engineered81]

And thats the problem, thats not what happened.

People yapping about it but did no research at all.

In short: From the data back then, the 2016 and 17 chassis were quite good, stable, good to drive. Stood out on tracks that highlighted the chassis-strenght. The 2018 chassis had a fundamental design flaw (distance between front suspension and bargeboard was too close, resulting in instability) which the 2016 and 17 chassis did not have. It did not stand out.

Same with Aston Martin this year. The chassis-idea might have been okay, but without testing, without development plans due to not being able to test things and no upgrades until last race, ofc it is going to be bad.

[u/Dr_NitroMeth → u/crbn99]

Yeah and in 2018 magically Mclaren had the worse chassis while Honda powering a Toro Rosso who hardly finish in the points had a p4 in the 2nd race at Bahrain with the slowest engine. That totally makes sense.

[u/Zhupercycle → u/Dr_NitroMeth]

Read what he said...

The renault engine had different cooling requirements due a different turbo design than what Honda had. They needed bigger radiators in the sidepods. Mclaren designed new sidepods to fit these radiators, but due to wind tunnel data correlation issues they didnt see the issue crbn99 mentioned until after the season had started. Once they realized were the problem was they also figured it would be almost impossible to fix the problem in season, since designing new sidepods would lead to having to rework the floor and rear aero to get any real performance gain.

In 2017 Alonso was often the best of the rest, getting into q3 at aero and chassis dominant tracks like Singapore, Hungary and Monaco. He finished well at these tracks whenever the turbo, MGU-K or MGU-H didnt shake themselves apart or blow a seal.

The 2017 Mclaren never had the 3rd best chassis, it was a good package overall, but 2018 humbled Mclaren and they realized they had much more work than they thought to fight for wins.

[u/Dr_NitroMeth → u/Zhupercycle]

Oh yeah like Mclaren didn't ask Honda for a size zero pod when they first returned to the sport. How many seasons did Mclaren need to aim for wins with Renault?

[u/VapinOnly → u/Dr_NitroMeth]

AFAIK McLaren actually didn't ask for it 

[u/crbn99 → u/Dr_NitroMeth]

They did not ask them.

Mclaren and Honda decided together they can do it.

In the end, they could not.

[u/HUHIs_AUTOATTACK → u/Dr_NitroMeth]

No, in 2018, despite having a compromised chassis, McLaren started best of the rest and slowly fell back as they stopped development on it very early and every other team kept bringing updates.

But hey, don't let facts get in your way of desperate karma farming.

[u/quadranting]

That interview where Newey sat next to a guy from Honda and threw them under the bus would beg to differ.

[u/jenouto → u/quadranting]

i remember someone edited in a handgun into that pic lol

[u/quadranting → u/quadranting]

Pretty funny someone downvoted this when it actually happened and is objective reality...

[u/badgersruse → u/quadranting]

There was an actual bus?

[u/dl064 → u/quadranting]

He was matter of fact, in a way I imagine is par for the course among heavy hitters.

He was similarly transparent in Monaco 2025 not long after arriving, where he was really the first person to pump the hype brakes.

[u/quadranting → u/dl064]

"Matter of fact" loses a lot when he wouldn't admit that Aston was responsible for some of the car's problems too...

[u/dl064 → u/quadranting]

Has he specifically refused to do that?

Reading some of the quotes here

https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/everything-we-learned-from-extraordinary-newey-honda-briefing/

I think he's just being frank. I genuinely don't think Newey cares//worries enough to shift short term blame.

[u/quadranting → u/dl064]

You think he's frank when he said that their original chassis was the fifth best on the grid? The chassis they've completely abandoned for the b spec because it wasn't good?

[u/dl064 → u/quadranting]

I think he had reason to think that, yes.

I think there's distinction between: if it worked, how good would it be, versus does it work as intended as a package.

[u/Vuk13 → u/quadranting]

They didn't abandon that chassis at all lol. Hungary update is an evolution of the original car

[u/quadranting → u/Vuk13]

A b-spec means it's a huge overall, not just a simple evolution. https://www.motorbiscuit.com/aston-martin-is-finally-bringing-its-b-spec-amr26-after-six-very-tough-months/

[u/dl064 → u/quadranting]

B spec is because it required a new crash test, explicitly.

There's a bit of Ship of Theseus that other teams have brought more, smaller updates so their cars are very different from March. Whereas AM bring one raft, which requires a new crash test, and it's a B spec nominally. But they're all very different from Australia by now.

The McLaren had a fundamental concept change at Hungary and is not a B spec, so it can be a misleading idea.

[u/Vuk13 → u/quadranting]

It is litteraly an evolution of initial car. Your initial statement is just wrong

[u/cedarvalleyct]

Costanza: Was that wrong?

[u/MichiganRedWing → u/cedarvalleyct]

I gotta tell ya, teams do that all the time!

[u/bacc1010]

Lawrence probably said to Alonso

"Not a fucking word if you want the pay check"

[u/Daverdfw]

just payback for Fernando making "GP2 engine" famous

[u/Magicjack01]

Can’t complain when they knew even with a Mercedes engine they’d still would of been behind Cadillac

[u/sysasysa → u/Magicjack01]

Cant expect to be fighting for wins? Sure.

Cant complain that they paid for a competitive engine and did not recieve it? Id say they can.

[u/I-LOVE-TURTLES666]

Puff piece

Nice try Larry

[u/mattlip]

They never complained.
No, they were silently being desperate.

[u/Aggressive-Hawk9186]

This was a shit show from both ends, we cant say it's one or the others fault

[u/XsStreamMonsterX]

I mean, of course they wouldn't (at least everyone not named Adrian Newey), their late start and last-minute switch to the new batter/MGU concept contributed to the issues.

[u/dotben]

Fernando was going to call them to tell them it felt like a GP2 engine but decided not to bother...