Aston Martin engineering director Luca Furbatto has admitted that the team will be able to make a huge step towards fighting for titles in 2026, when they’re in a position with Honda to take “control of our own destiny”.
Currently, Aston Martin are a customer team of Mercedes, meaning they receive power units and gearboxes from the Silver Arrows.
Because of this, Mercedes send Aston Martin each components dimensions, something the Silverstone-based team have no choice but to work around when designing their car.
This will no longer be the case when the new power unit regulations are introduced in 2026, as Aston Martin will become a works Honda team.
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Honda are leaving Red Bull at the end of 2025 as the Austrians are going to be powering themselves in the new era of Formula 1, with support from Ford.
The Japanese manufacturer will therefore work solely for Aston Martin, something Furbatto recognises as being what the team must do to “take the next step towards winning”.
“In the past it has not been the case but since the introduction of hybrid power units only works teams have won the F1 World Championship,” Furbatto told team media.
“We’re very happy with what we receive from Mercedes, however in terms of car architecture we’re partially led by Mercedes F1 Team and Mercedes High Performance Powertrains.
“We receive the dimensions of the power unit, gearbox and rear end, so we have to adapt the design of our car around what they provide to us.
“By 2026, with a power unit from Honda and our own gearbox, we’ll have control of our own destiny. If we want to take the next step towards winning, this is what we have to do.”
Even as a Mercedes customer team, Aston Martin have made huge amounts of progress this season, enough to push them towards the front in the first half of 2023.
Fernando Alonso has claimed a brilliant seven podiums for the British side this year, although they’ve recently started to fall backwards.
Team principal Mike Krack has recognised this, at a time when they look set to lose fourth in the Constructors’ Championship to a rapidly improving McLaren.
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Krack believes that Aston Martin’s recent downfall has been caused by the other frontrunners making “big progress”, something he admits Aston Martin haven’t done.
“You see some competitors have really made big progress, some less, and it seems quite simple. We have not done enough,” admitted Krack.
“Others have filled the gap [to Red Bull], more than the gap has become massively bigger. Surely we would have liked to have more performance from our upgrades, but there is still some to come, so I am confident that we can close the gap a little bit.”