Aston Martin chief Adrian Newey has admitted the team were unaware until late on of the level of inexperience within Honda’s current engine operation for their full return to F1 this year.

Honda have made a full-time comeback to F1 this year having ended its previous works partnership with Red Bull at the end of 2021, although the Japanese manufacturer continued to provide technical support for a power unit that claimed further world titles and race victories with the Milton Keynes-based team.

But the Japanese manufacturer’s latest design for the start of F1’s new era of regulations has hitherto floundered, with Aston Martin badly struggling for performance and reliability heading into this weekend’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

On the timeline of Honda’s F1 involvement over the past five years, team principal Newey said: “Honda pulled out at the end of 2021. They then re-entered the sport kind of at the end of 2022, so roughly a year and a bit out of the competition.

“When they reformed a lot of the original group had, it now transpires, disbanded, gone to work on solar panels or whatever. So a lot of the group that reformed are actually fresh to Formula 1, they didn’t bring the experience that they had had previously

“Plus, when they came back in 2023 that was the first year of the budget cap introduction for engines so all their rivals had been developing away through ’21 and ’22 with continuity the existing team and free of budget cap.

“They re-entered with let’s say only, I’m guessing, 30 percent of their original team and now in a budget cap era. So they started very much on the back foot and unfortunately they’ve struggled to to catch back up.”

But asked if Aston Martin had been aware of the level of the inexperience shortfall when they signed their Honda deal in May 2023, Newey, who joined Aston Martin from Red Bull last spring, said: “No, we weren’t

“We only really became aware of it kind of November of last year when we – Lawrence [Stroll] Andy Cowell and myself – went to Tokyo to discuss as rumours starting to suggest that their original target power they wouldn’t achieve for race one.

“Out of that came the fact t that many of the original workforce had not returned when they restarted.”

‘Quite a scary place to be in’ – Battery shortage already leaves Aston on race-one brink

A day after laying bare the shocking extent of the team’s issues with Honda’s power unit in a press conference in Melbourne, Aston Martin were barely able to turn a wheel in the season’s opening practice session at Albert Park on Friday.

Power unit issues saw Fernando Alonso fail to appear in the opening session entirely and Lance Stroll complete only three laps.

Severe vibrations from the power unit have caused problems for the battery in the hybrid system and Newey revealed they were already down to one each for each car this weekend.

“We came here with four batteries,” he said.

“We’ve had conditioning problems or communication problems with two of those batteries which means we’ve as we sit here today only got two operational batteries.

“That given our kind of rate of battery damage is quite a scary place to be in.

“Obviously, we’re hopeful that we can get through the weekend and start two cars and so on and so forth but it’s it’s very difficult to be concrete at the moment about that.”

And asked if there was any possibility of flying any more batteries in to Melbourne, Newey conceded: “Unfortunately not. There aren’t any.”

Sky Sports F1’s Australian GP schedule

Saturday March 7
0.10am: F3 Sprint*
1.10am: Australian GP Practice Three (session starts at 1.30am)*
3.05am: F2 Sprint*
4.10am: Australian GP Qualifying build-up*
5am: AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING*
7am: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*
9.45pm: F3 Feature Race*

Sunday March 8
12.20am: F2 Feature Race*
2.30am: Australian GP build-up: Grand Prix Sunday*
4am: THE AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX*
6am: Australian GP reaction: Chequered Flag*
7am: Ted’s Notebook*
7.55am: Australian GP race replay*
10am: Australian GP highlights (also on Sky One)*

*Also on Sky Sports Main Event

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