Honda circles January 20 for first look at Aston Martin’s 2026 F1 heart

In an era of tightly stage-managed car launches and CFD secrets, it’s not often that an engine gets its own moment under the spotlights. But when the lights go out in a Tokyo auditorium on January 20, 2026, Honda intends to make the bare bones of Formula 1’s future roar into life.

The Japanese manufacturer has confirmed it will unveil its 2026 power unit at a dedicated event in the capital, marking the public birth of the engine that will power Aston Martin into F1’s next rules revolution. It’s a bold, almost old-school step: a standalone launch for a power unit that will never wear another team’s colours.

Honda, officially returning as a full works supplier after its name quietly vanished from the grid in 2021, will supply Aston Martin exclusively from 2026. The new unit will be revealed at 13:00 local time on January 20 in Tokyo – 04:00 GMT – with the event livestreamed in English and Japanese, according to multiple outlets including Formula1.com and RacingNews365.

On stage will be Honda president and CEO Toshihiro Mibe, Aston Martin executive chairman Lawrence Stroll and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, underlining how much political and competitive weight sits inside that compact 1.6‑litre V6. As Honda put it in a statement carried by GrandPrix247 and Formula1.com: “At this event, we will share the aspirations of Honda and Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team as we take on the challenge of competing in F1, the pinnacle of motorsport. We will also explain the new regulations and reveal our new power unit for the upcoming season.”

Those regulations are the real backdrop to the Tokyo theatre. From 2026 the power unit becomes a true 50/50 hybrid: roughly half its output from the internal combustion engine, half from a massively uprated electric motor, with the MGU‑H consigned to history and 100% sustainable fuel filling the tank. HRC president Koji Watanabe captured Honda’s motivation in a recent Aston Martin feature that PlanetF1 also highlighted: “These regulations encourage a 50:50 output split between the internal combustion engine and the electric motor, with the latter nearly tripling in output from 120kW to 350kW… This is very much in line with Honda’s philosophy on future propulsion systems.”

Then came the line that has already entered the sport’s lore. “I think Honda probably can’t live without F1,” Watanabe admitted. For a company that has swung in and out of the championship for decades, the 2026 project feels like an attempt to turn that emotional truth into a sustainable business case.

Technically, this is a clean-sheet effort. Honda’s Sakura brains trust has spent the last few years building a 2026‑spec power unit while still supporting Red Bull Powertrains through the engine freeze. Now, with Red Bull going its own way with Ford, Honda has bet everything on green and British racing green. Watanabe has already laid out a six‑step roadmap from design to dyno to track, describing an efficiency target of around 50% – road‑car‑shaming territory for thermodynamic performance.

On the Aston Martin side, the new engine is the final missing piece of a works project that has grown brick by brick in Silverstone. A new factory, a wind tunnel, heavyweight technical hires in Andy Cowell and Adrian Newey – and, crucially, a shift from being a Mercedes customer to a full works partner aligned with Honda and Aramco on fuels, lubricants and packaging. As Watanabe told Aston Martin’s official site: “For the moment, we’re not considering supplying any other teams. We want to concentrate on winning with Aston Martin Aramco.”

The human stakes are written between those lines. This is not just about an engine cover logo; it’s about identity. Under Mercedes power, Aston Martin flirted with the front of the grid but never quite escaped the pull of being ‘another Mercedes team’. With Honda, the AMR26 and its successors will be conceived around a bespoke hybrid heart, the cooling architecture, rear suspension and aero flow all drawn up with direct input from Sakura. The days of shaping your car around someone else’s power unit pit window are over.

That’s why a January engine launch matters. It is Honda saying: this is our chapter. The Tokyo event promises a rare, up‑close look at a 2026‑spec unit – all intricate plumbing, chubby turbo and cable-thick high-voltage looms – and, if previous teasers are any guide, the sharp, metallic bark of a V6 now sharing its workload with a far hungrier battery. Think less shrieking V10, more surgically precise thunder, with the ERS humming beneath like an electric storm.

Crash.net has already called Honda’s move “out of the ordinary”, and it is. Engine suppliers usually lurk in the shadows while teams unveil liveries and marketing slogans. But with Audi also trumpeting its own launch plans, the arms race for the 2026 era has gone public early. Honda’s decision to go first is a declaration that its development is far enough along to show, and to be heard.

And yet, for all the carbon fibre and CFD, this story keeps circling back to people. To Watanabe juggling late-night calls between Sakura and Silverstone. To Mibe, who once signed off Honda’s withdrawal and is now fronting its return. To Stroll, who has wagered that a true works alliance – and a Honda badge on the cam covers – is what finally turns Aston Martin from disruptor into champion.

“We are on the eve of something very special,” Watanabe told Aston Martin’s in-house interviewer. On January 20 in Tokyo, surrounded by arc lamps and camera flashes and the faint, oily scent of fresh-built machinery, we’ll get to see – and hear – the mechanical soul of that promise before it ever turns a wheel.