Adrian Newey has revealed that Aston Martin has no more spare batteries for its Honda engines at the Australian Grand Prix, and that he feels “helpless” over the team’s current situation for 2026.

Aston Martin has endured an arduous prelude to the 2026 season, with key issues relating to the Honda engine, which produces excessive vibrations when running.

These vibrations have caused battery failures, and Aston Martin has assigned several members of its staff to the Honda facility in Sakura in order to help reverse the situation.

Similar problems had led the team to reduce its participation in the Bahrain tests. During the final day, Fernando Alonso had completed a long run before being ordered to stop on the track, and Lance Stroll only did a few laps that afternoon.

Laps were again scarce during FP1 in Melbourne, with Stroll only completing three laps of the Albert Park circuit and Alonso never leaving the garage. Aston Martin team principal Newey said a new problem had arisen upon arrival in Australia.

“We have had a new internal communication problem with the battery and its management system,” he explained.

“But the underlying problem, the much more underlying problem, is the vibration issues that we continue to struggle with.”

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing

Photo: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

“Today we tested a different solution on Lance’s car. We are currently analyzing whether it has helped and, based on that analysis, we will define what we do for FP2.

I think, realistically, it’s just about trying to manage the problem. We are missing batteries. We only have two left, the two that are in the car.

If we lose one of them, it will obviously be a big problem. “So we have to be very careful how we use batteries.”

He added that Honda had restricted the amount of fuel the car can consume, compounding Aston Martin’s poor lap count, as the team was struggling to obtain more information about the car.

However, Newey was convinced his team could work with Honda to find a solution for the rest of the year.

“I think it’s something I feel a little helpless about, because clearly we have a very significant problem with the power unit and our lack of running-in also means that, at the same time, we’re not discovering anything about the car,” Newey added.

“Our information about the car itself is very limited because we have driven very little and, above all, with little fuel.”

Adrian Newey, Aston Martin Racing

Photo: Kym Illman/Getty Images

“The fuel acts as a shock absorber for the battery, so Honda has limited us a lot in the amount of low-fuel testing we can do. So it becomes a problem that feeds on itself, and of course it’s costing us a lot of energy — in the human sense, not in the kilowatt sense — to try to work with Honda and find the best overall solution.

We could turn around and say ‘well, it’s not our problem’, but it is our problem, because ultimately the car is a combination of chassis and power unit.”

Newey stated that the aim was still to put both cars on the grid, but that battery problems had left the team in a “worrying situation” for the rest of the weekend.

He added that there was no possibility of obtaining more batteries from Honda, stating simply that there were “no more” left for the team to use apart from the two remaining units.

“Given our battery damage rate, it’s a pretty worrying situation. Obviously we’re hoping we can get through the weekend and get both cars running, etc., but at the moment it’s very difficult to be concrete about that.”

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