Honda’s January reveal: Inside the 2026 Aston Martin-exclusive power unit

In a sport obsessed with the moment when the lights went out, Honda has chosen a different kind of start signal: a date on the calendar. On 20 January 2026, in a Tokyo hall far from Silverstone’s winter drizzle, the Japanese manufacturer will pull the covers off the power unit that will define Aston Martin’s future – and its own return as a full factory force in Formula 1.

Engines are usually the hidden heartbeat of an F1 car, glimpsed only as carbon-fibre bodywork comes off in frantic pit lane surgery. Honda is turning that on its head. As confirmed by multiple outlets, including Formula 1’s official site and RacingNews365, the 2026 Honda power unit will be unveiled at a dedicated event in Tokyo, streamed live on YouTube, weeks before Aston Martin shows its new chassis.

This is not just a spec sheet presentation. Honda president and CEO Toshihiro Mibe will share the stage with Aston Martin executive chairman Lawrence Stroll and F1 boss Stefano Domenicali, according to The Race and Formula1.com, underscoring how much is riding on this metal-and-software masterpiece. PlanetF1 reports that Honda intends to use the event to lay out its ambitions for the new hybrid era and explain the 2026 regulations that lured it back.

The headline stat is simple enough to etch into the memory: a near 50/50 split between internal combustion and electric power. The FIA’s 2026 rules, highlighted by Honda and detailed by RacingNews365, will see the MGU-H scrapped, electrical output jump from 120kW to around 350kW, and 100% sustainable fuel become mandatory. It’s a reset designed to make F1’s technology road-relevant again – and it aligns neatly with Honda’s own carbon-neutral roadmap, as the company’s F1 history pages make clear.

For Aston Martin, this is the moment customer status is traded for full works glory. After years of running Mercedes hardware in the back – engine, gearbox and rear suspension – the Silverstone squad steps into 2026 with a bespoke Honda installation and its own transmission project. Andy Cowell, now steering Aston Martin’s technical direction, has already described the relationship with Honda as “liberating” in an interview with Motorsport.com, precisely because nothing is a black box anymore. Chassis, cooling, energy deployment and gearbox are now conceived as one system, not a patchwork of purchased parts.

The January launch is the first public proof that this joint project is on schedule. Destination Formula 1 notes that the unit has been in advanced development for months, split between Honda’s Sakura base in Japan and Aston Martin’s rapidly expanding technology campus in the UK. Prototype gearboxes have been running on dynos on both sides of the world, and simulations are already linking how every watt and every gram translates into lap time.

There’s human jeopardy woven into the carbon fibre. Honda’s last great F1 gamble began with painful seasons alongside McLaren before the script flipped into a title-winning partnership with Red Bull. As RACER recently reminded readers, Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe insists the new tie-up with Aston Martin is built on those lessons and meant to last beyond one rules cycle.

“We are on the eve of something very special.”

— Koji Watanabe, speaking to RACER

But special doesn’t mean simple. Watanabe is clear that 2026 must first prove the partnership works as “one integrated team” before anyone dares whisper about championships. The early phase will be about matching internal targets in a landscape where opponents – Red Bull-Ford, Mercedes, Ferrari, Audi – are all chasing the same efficiency gains and reliability margins under the same electrified ruleset.

PlanetF1 quotes Watanabe with a line that feels almost like a confession of competitive addiction – “Honda probably can’t live without F1” – and you can hear that hunger even in the brief audio tease Honda released of its 2026 engine firing up. A sharper, more electric-laced note, but still with that angry mechanical bark; the sound of old-school racing fury wired into a greener future.

Look beyond the launch theatrics and a clear strategic picture emerges. By fixing a January date, Honda and Aston Martin are planting a flag: the power unit is far enough advanced to be shown, branded and discussed, even while rivals keep their cards closer to their chests. It’s a message to fans that this is a true works project, not a badge exercise – and a warning shot to competitors that the Honda–Aston axis is already moving in lockstep.

When the doors open in Tokyo and the cameras close in on that compact, tightly packaged V6 hybrid, it will represent more than pistons and power electronics. It will be the physical embodiment of a bet: that a once-middling customer team can, with the right factory ally and the right regulations, rewrite its place in the F1 pecking order. Another chapter in Honda’s turbulent love affair with grand prix racing begins, and this time the story starts not when the lights go out, but when a cover is lifted and the future of green horsepower is revealed under the bright white glare of a Tokyo stage.