Aston Martin ditches Mercedes for Honda in 2026 as announcement seems imminent

It looks like the Aston Martin F1 team may end their partnership with Mercedes and join hands with Honda for the 2026 season.

The 2026 season will see new engine regulations being introduced to the sport. The teams have already started to seize their current engine developments until the end of the 2025 season, as per the regulations.

Honda, who left the sport as an engine manufacturer at the end of the 2021 season, after their fruitful partnership with Red Bull, announced that they will return to the grid as engine suppliers in 2026. As per Gazzetta.it, the Japanese manufacturer may have found themselves a partner in Aston Martin.

The Silverstone-based outfit has been one of the customer teams of the Mercedes AMG F1 team and also have been using their engines for more than a decade. But as per reports, they will announce on Wednesday that they will partner with Honda and ditch the Mercedes team going forward.

"When you're the reserve driver, it's nice having that feeling" - Aston Martin reserve driver

F1 Grand Prix of Miami

Aston Martin reserve driver Felip Drugovich mentioned that his experience with the Silverstone team has been really important. It was nice for him to drive the AMR23 in the pre-season testing in place of injured Lance Stroll.

Speaking to GiveMeSport, the Brazilian said:

"[The experience] was really important. When you're the reserve driver, it's nice having that feeling, because some would have to jump in without knowing the car, but I got to know the car at the beginning of the season. I think that's the best thing, just to be already familiar with the car in case I have to jump in one day.

"I learned a lot about actually developing the car, because most of the drivers get to test at the end of the season, and aren't actually doing much for the team. If you do testing at the beginning of the season before the first race, you're testing a lot of things and that's really, really nice to do to try to help the team."

The Aston Martin reserve driver added:

"It's been really good and it's allowing me to see everything I want to. I'm trying to have another perspective from outside. Obviously, the dream is to be racing and not looking from outside, but you have to look at the positives and looking from outside like this is quite good."

It will be fascinating to see if Drugovich gets to drive the AMR23 again this season.