Aston Martin unhappy after Honda power unit issue in Mexico

Aston Martin says its options to complete the Mexico City Grand Prix were insufficient after its Honda power units suffered an abnormal issue. Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll retired within five laps of the race at the high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, where thinner air places extra demands on the turbo, a challenge made harder by the removal of the MGU-H in 2026.

Honda linked the failures to special circumstances in Mexico, including double warm-up laps and the formation lap, which put undue strain on the ERS cooling circuits and led to MGU-K failures. The cars ultimately retired with water pressure problems. Aston Martin trackside chief Mike Krack said the team had considered several escalation options before the race but found them insufficient.

Honda chief engineer Shintaro Orihara said countermeasures, on both hardware and software, would be brought to Interlagos, another high-altitude circuit, and that investigations were under way at Sakura.