The 2026 season is sure to add a fair bit of drama to F1. The sport will go through another iteration of regulation changes for the cars. The most important of them all is the overhaul of the power units. There will be more reliance on harvesting performance through the electric battery rather than the fuel. Also, the fuel would be a lot more sustainable than the one that goes into the cars currently. Teams are already preparing for it and Aston Martin is the latest to take a big step. However, the move left fans wondering if it will drive their star driver, Fernando Alonso, away from them. Aston Martin’s boss, however, believes the Spaniard holds more maturity than taking a step like that.

Red Bull became the first team to announce a big partnership for developing the power units for the 2026 season. During the launch of their 2023 car, the RB19, they announced the finalization of their partnership with Ford. That effectively meant that the Austrian team’s relationship with Honda would end, also ending the Japanese automaker’s F1 run in 2026.

Aston Martin’s new partnership won’t drive Fernando Alonso away, assures CEO

Just when Honda’s exit from F1 looked inevitable, Lawrence Stroll‘s team announced their partnership. The current Red Bull’s powertrain partner will develop the engines for Aston Martin starting from the 2026 season. Many believed that the move will result in the end of Alonso’s F1 career, given his fractious past with the engine supplier during his McLaren days. Group CEO of Aston Martin Performance Technologies, Martin Whitmarsh, however, ruled out any such possibility.

The Race quoted Whitmarsh as saying, “Clearly Fernando is doing a great job and I’m delighted to have him as part of our team as he’s making a great contribution both on and off the track.”

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“I spoke to Fernando a while ago about the direction we wanted to go. He’s a very intelligent individual. I’m sure everyone here is referring to some comments that were made in the heat of the battle, which were quite memorable, but he understands and respects what Honda is doing.”

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The partnership could work out really well and turn Aston Martin into a title contender. The team is already on its course to a phenomenal rise. Honda, on the other hand, is the engine supplier of Red Bull, a team that won both 2022 championships in the most dominant fashion.

Honda ready to work with Alonso, does not mind his presence on the team

Alonso, frustrated with the performance of the Honda engines during his time at McLaren between 2015 and 2017, openly criticized them for their shortcomings. During the 2015 Japanese GP, he went as far as calling their product a “GP2 engine”. The comment caused a lot of controversy at the time, with the Spaniard receiving backlash for his outspoken attitude. Honda, however, is ready to let bygones be bygones.

Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe said, “The selection of drivers is up to the team to decide. So, if the team decides we’ll have Alonso as a driver again, we will have no objections whatsoever on him driving.”

“We respect him [Alonso] highly,” Watanabe added. “With respect to the driver selection, I will not say we’re not going to be involved in team management whatsoever but the decision of the drivers is up to the team.”

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Alonso’s current contract with the Silverstone outfit will end at the end of the 2025 season. Do you think he will renew his contract now given that Honda is going to be an integral part of the team as well?