Safnauer is confident that Honda will create a better engine.

      Otmar Safnauer, who led the Aston Martin team in 2021, was vice president of Honda Racing Developments, the Honda racing division, in the early noughties, and knows well the working methods and approaches of the Japanese corporation.

      Safnauer is confident that his former colleagues will be able to create one of the best, if not the best, World Championship powerplant by 2026. Next season, such engines will only be available on Aston Martin cars, which are already being developed by Adrian Newey.

      "Honda wants to continue to achieve success in Formula 1, and together with Red Bull they have achieved a lot," Safnauer told PlanetF1. "In 2000, when I started working with this company, working in the BAR team, Japanese engines were neither the lightest nor the most powerful. But by 2004, their power plants had become the leaders in power in Formula 1 and were characterized by minimal weight.

      In general, it took four years for Honda motorists to do this. And if you remember what kind of engines they built in the hybrid era, then in 2015, when they started working with McLaren, their power plants were also far from the most efficient. But in the end, Honda learned how to build better engines.

      It is absolutely certain that it will be the same this time. Japanese motorists work selflessly, they have all the necessary resources and infrastructure at their disposal. Honda employs very smart engineers, this corporation has always been proud that the production of power plants is its main profile.

      All the heads of the Honda Motor Company are engine engineers by profession, and there have never been any other directors and presidents there."