Why Honda’s power unit lasted barely five laps in F1 Mexico GP
In its Mexico Grand Prix preview, Honda’s Shintaro Orihara had described Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez as “a very challenging track for the power unit”, but he perhaps didn’t expect Aston Martin’s weekend to go so awry.
Despite decent pace and mileage in free practice – Fernando Alonso was just 0.769s down on pacesetter Charles Leclerc in FP2, with the AMR26s covering a whopping 144 laps across all three sessions – it all went wrong in the competitive sessions.
Honda did fix some driveability and turbo lag issues between FP3 and qualifying, but Alonso encountered “abnormal signals on the water systems” on Saturday afternoon, which didn’t prevent him from outqualifying Lance Stroll; still, both cars were out in Q1, four tenths down on the Q2 cut-off time.
In the race, the pair retired after five laps due to cooling issues.
“We knew that with the special high-altitude circumstance of Mexico City, we would face some additional challenges compared to other racetracks for the cooling,” said Orihara, Honda’s trackside general manager and chief engineer, following the race.
“However, we found that our ERS cooling circuit was under heavier stress than anticipated and this is why we had to stop the car in different sessions.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Colin McMaster / LAT Images via Getty Images
“Despite completing a series of laps during the practice sessions, the issue occurred today and during qualifying yesterday.
“At each race this year, we need to learn for 2027, even the hard lessons. We have a lot of data that we can bring back to this circuit next year, including on the turbo lag, and we will work on the solutions.”
Orihara pointed out on Thursday that in previous years the MGU-H supported the turbo, therefore reducing lag, but the new, simpler power units no longer feature that device – and that too was a problem with the thinner air at Mexico City’s high altitude.
While a frustrated Stroll only gave laconic answers to the media at the end of the weekend, Alonso was slightly more loquacious and underlined the scale of the challenge for Aston Martin and Honda.
“The car is very good,” the Spaniard said. “The problem is just, we cannot do more laps than a certain number, apparently, with the engine. Hopefully we learned a lesson and we come next year more prepared.”
But the Adrian Newey-designed machine had potential – even in Mexico. It’s fair to say Alonso and Stroll didn’t get much of a chance to show what they could do in the race; yet, putting the Spaniard’s quickest three sectors together on Sunday (he pitted on lap three, which prevented him from completing a decent lap), he was nearly as quick as Williams’ Carlos Sainz, despite presumably having a much heavier car with a full tank of fuel.
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
“On Thursday, when we sat together, we said this is a track that has a lot of low-speed corners,” Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack said. “And if we get the driveability under control, that we can be competitive. For example, corners like the stadium section, [Turns] 4-5-6, low-speed stuff.”
Reliability therefore is the crux of the issue – as well as keeping morale up. “It’s difficult for everyone to keep the motivation high in such situations, and we are struggling all year already,” Krack admitted.
“We had a very difficult start of the year, then the period when we introduced the upgrades and the ADUO, we [had] a bit better results. Now, we have more trouble in terms of reliability. In Texas, we had different issues with incidents. You know, it’s part of racing.
“The thing is, everybody tries his best, everybody is motivated to do better, and I have no doubt about the motivation. We don’t have to motivate them, it’s motivating them the highest possible.”
And if anyone is staying motivated, that will be Alonso. “I’m doing my best every time, every lap I do, every morning I wake up, every preparation I do, every food I take – everything is focused on performing at my best behind the wheel,” he insisted again despite his seventh retirement of the season.
Additional reporting by Luis Ramirez
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