Race Week Recap #18 – The Azerbaijan GP, Part 1

Representatives from Aston Martin, Honda, Aramco and Valoline at the partnership announcement event

Hi friends,

Welcome to the first of two weeks where I think we’re going to be talking a lot about Aston Martin 👀

Top story of the week: Aston Martin announce partnership with Honda, Aramco and Valvoline

It’s not exactly been a secret, that an Aston Martin Honda tie-up was in the works. But now it’s been made official: Starting in 2026, Aston Martin will be Honda powered.

Why is this important? Despite Honda’s on-again-off-again relationship with F1 (and their very shaky return with McLaren), we’ve all see what they’ve accomplished with Red Bull, whose own engine venture is based entirely off of Honda’s designs.

This will make Aston Martin a factory team, with the full support of an experienced engine manufacturer behind it. Aston Martin has also emerged as the top contender for Adrian Newey’s services, who has experience in designing a good aerodynamic package to wrap the Honda powertrains.

Love him or hate him, Stroll Sr. is not messing around. He is investing heavily in bringing this team to the top, and Honda wants to join him on that journey.

While the 2026 regulations are still getting a lot of pushback – and rightly so in my opinion – there’s a very real chance that Aston Martin are setting themselves up to be one of the big dogs in the fight as the new formula comes into effect.

The rest of the stories this week:

And one final thing – I’m keeping track of the Formula 1 Championship math over on Twitter. So far Norris is still clinging to his Championship hopes with his last few results. If you’re interested in that sort of thing, you can go check it out right here.

That’s it for this week. Until next time, thank you for being here.

If you want to support me, you can help fuel the snack addition that powers me through compiling these lists and vetting the stories – you can do so on Buymeacoffee or Patreon.

Posted by Jeppe H. Olesen

I write things about motorsports.