Honda targets Zandvoort engine boost for Aston Martin

Honda says Aston Martin will get a revised power unit at the Dutch Grand Prix, with Shintaro Orihara making clear that Spa and Hungary are the final two races to gather the data needed before the update arrives at Zandvoort.

In Honda’s Belgian Grand Prix preview, Honda trackside general manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara said, “We have two more races before we introduce the new engine.” That points to the post-summer-break round in the Netherlands as the debut for the new specification.

The timing matters because Honda’s power unit has been identified by the FIA as the weakest on the 2026 grid under the Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities system, giving the manufacturer extra room to develop. For Aston Martin, that makes the Zandvoort package more than a routine step in the program. It is a needed response to a season in which the team has scored only one point in the first nine races and spent most weekends fighting at the back with newcomer Cadillac.

Honda is not presenting Belgium or Hungary as a likely turning point on outright pace. Instead, the focus is on understanding the current package well enough to make the next one more effective. Orihara said it is “important to keep learning with this current spec, so we can take those energy deployment findings into future races – like Monza, where we also have the long straights.”

That makes Spa-Francorchamps especially important. Orihara said the circuit will test manufacturers on energy management, with long straights demanding careful use of MGU-K power while offering limited opportunities to recover energy over the lap. “The harvesting here is quite limited, even considering the circuit length,” he said. “This puts more emphasis on getting the deployment plan right.” He added that Spa’s straights also put the power unit under pressure not just for performance, but for reliability.

The next two weekends are therefore less about expecting Aston Martin to climb the order immediately and more about making sure the Zandvoort upgrade lands with useful answers behind it. The information Honda and Aston Martin extract now will shape not only the revised package’s debut in the Netherlands, but also its effectiveness at other power-sensitive tracks such as Monza.