He makes shocking Formula 1 admission: ‘We’re fighting’

She left Red Bull after initially deciding to retire from Formula 1. That prompted the Milton Keynes squad to invest heavily in developing its own power unit program before joining forces with Ford.

Honda subsequently decided to remain in F1 with Aston Martin to become its factory effort.

That will see the Silverstone-based operation drop its current Mercedes supply, which will instead go to Alpine.

It’s part of a broader approach at Aston Martin, which is reinventing itself under Lawrence Stroll’s ownership. Design legend Adrian Newey is due to join the team in March, and the team recently completed construction of an impressive new factory and wind tunnel. An intensive recruitment campaign was also carried out, significantly strengthening the technical staff and providing resources to rival the best F1 teams.

Becoming a Honda factory team was seen as a further step in that direction, especially given the Japanese brand’s success alongside Red Bull in recent seasons. New rules for 2026 mean greater reliance on electrification and the elimination of the expensive MGU-H.

This creates a whole new set of problems for engine manufacturers and has forced Honda to make a shocking admission. “We’re fighting,” Watanabe said.

“We’re doing our best now to get results next year.” “Everything is new,” he added.

“The engine is new, 355kW and very compact, which is exactly what we wanted. Also, batteries are not so easy to develop because they are light, and small engines with a lot of power.

“Everything is very difficult, but we try our best.”

Regulations were changed for 2026 in an effort to attract new manufacturers into the sport.

Audi has joined the fray and has taken complete ownership of Sauber. The company is renaming its Swiss division in its own image and plans to introduce its own powertrains next season. Ford is also returning to F1 after a long hiatus, and General Motors has also expressed interest, but only because of the expected entry of Cadillac, which will not be ready until 2026. As well as changes to the technical specifications of the power units, a cost cap has also been introduced.

Newey said the new regulations could lead to a monopoly by one manufacturer, as Mercedes has done since 2014. “There is a strong likelihood that it will be an engine formula initially,” Newey told Auto Motor und Sport of the 2026 regulations.

“I can’t think of another example in Formula 1 where the chassis rules and the engine rules have changed at the same time, and in this case the chassis rules have been largely written to try to compensate for, for example, the power unit rules. So there’s an extra dimension.

“There has to be a chance that one manufacturer will come out well on top, and it will become a power-unit-dominated regulation, at least to start with,” he continued. “It’s possible that if it’s an internal combustion engine, someone will come up with a dominant internal combustion engine that will last throughout the formula, because the rules are written in such a way that it’s quite difficult for the laggards to catch up.

“In electric, the laggards have a much better chance of catching up. “With regards to fuel, there could also be a role, there is a principle of flexibility, but given the limitations of the test bench and the fact that everything is optimised, you can’t just put different fuels in the engine. It’s not optimised for this.