Aston Martin CEO and Team Principal Andy Cowell has been “impressed” by the outfit’s incoming Formula 1 engine partner Honda, calling the Japanese marque “hugely capable”.
Cowell is somewhat of an expert in F1’s hybrid era, as he was top dog over the Mercedes High Performance Powertrains division from 2013 through June 2020.
During this period, the silver arrows enjoyed absolute dominance from a class-leading power unit, winning seven world championship doubles.
In his new roles at Aston Martin as CEO and Team Principal, Cowell is taking charge of an outfit transitioning from a Mercedes powertrain customer in the present, to a works team in 2026 courtesy of new engine partner Honda.
Despite Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) president Koji Watanabe recently telling PlanetF1 that 2026 powertrain development is proving “very difficult,” Cowell has hailed the Japanese marque’s strong track record.
“Honda is hugely capable when we look at the number of wins they’ve had, the number of championships they’ve won in the last few years,” Cowell told select media including Motorsport Week.
“The Honda powertrain has won more than the Mercedes powertrain in the last few years, and so hats off to them.”
Indeed, Honda has powered Max Verstappen to all four of his Drivers’ titles despite taking a tentative step back from F1 at the end of 2021 to merely support Red Bull in operating its power unit.
Cowell ‘impressed’ by Honda’s ambition
Cowell revealed that he has visited Honda in Japan and had nothing but praise for the work he has seen so far.
Given his experience at Mercedes HPP, Cowell believes he will be a key component in communicating between the Honda camp and the wider Aston Martin team to ensure harmony and “efficiency” along with integrating fuel supplier Aramco and lubricants partner Valvoline.
“I’ve visited [the Honda] factory,” said Cowell.
“I’m nothing but impressed with the group of people there, their ambition, their creativity, their push, their sense of humour, the facilities they’ve got.
“It’s very, very impressive. The same with Aramco and Valvoline.
“So I’m aware of the journey that they’re going through, so I can have empathy and therefore support for what they’re doing. And I can help make sure that the team of engineers at Silverstone work hand in glove with the team of engineers at Sakura, and I’m learning more day by day about the environment of creating a race car.
“And I guess that, coupled with my experience from the power unit, hopefully I can bring the teams together well and explain from each other’s shoes what’s going on in their head when a power unit engineer says, ‘yeah, but what about this?’ I can understand and explain that.
“And as a collective, we’re chasing the creation of a really efficient racing car, aerodynamically efficient, power unit efficient.
“Every single system, if you chase efficiency, typically the stopwatch says that you’ve done well.
“So that’s what we’re doing as a team and as an organisation in every single department.”
A ‘challenging’ 12 months ahead for Aston Martin and Honda
The next 12 months for Aston Martin and Honda will prove to be critical as the former transitions into a works team and the latter works on homologating its 2026 powertrain.
The regulations next season mean the hybrid powertrains will dispense of the MGU-H, introduce sustainable fuels and see an increased electrical power output making up for almost half of the projected 1000 BHP from the entire hybrid system.
The changes are such that HRC’s Tetushi Kakuda told Autosport “We are aiming to submit the homologation in February next year – since we had a slightly late start, we want to push forward until the very last moment.”
Moreover, Cowell revealed that taking everything in house at Aston Martin has unveiled a long list of tasks from merely being a customer outfit.
“I think our situation for next year, we’re transitioning from being a customer team this year with Mercedes powertrain to a works team with Honda, with Aramco fuels and Valvoline lubricants, and creating our own transmission and rear wishbones and so on,” he explained.
“It is a step up for us. It’s a challenging jobs list in front of us over the next 12 months.”
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