Honda issue 'magic' concern after FIA president indicates intervention

Honda chief Shintaro Orihara has addressed recent claims from FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem that he is keen to aid the manufacturer and Aston Martin in its performance.

Honda and Aston Martin have struggled for performance in 2026, with the power unit suffering from initial severe vibrations and a lack of power and drivability for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. 

Alonso is known to be weighing up his future about staying on for a 24th F1 season in 2027, with FIA chief Ben Sulayem recently saying at a business forum in Madrid that the current plight of Alonso was "not acceptable" and that "we did something earlier in May, legally, for the team, towards the engine, to go and improve. 

"Then I said to him, 'I'm not going to tell you what we are going to do. Please tell me what you want because you are the driver, tell me what you want us to do to improve these results."

Responding to Ben Sulayem's comments, Honda's Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer Orihara felt that "no magic" was possible from whatever could be granted.

"I don't know what he is thinking," Orihara told media, including RacingNews365, when asked if Honda had spoken with Ben Sulayem. 

"So I don't think he can give us some magic.

"We will just focus on our development plan and working hard to improve by ourselves, so that is the plan at the moment.

"At this moment, we do not have any big updates planned for this year, but we still think there is room for improvement in our performance by changing the calibration."

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Honda continuing to deploy countermeasures

Orihara also explained how performance was not the only area Honda was seeking to make big gains with its engine. 

"Even [in the Spanish GP], we applied some countermeasures to get more straight-line speed," he added.

"The gain is small, but there is a lot of room we can try to improve our performance in, not only in durability, but we will keep improving our performance.

"We believe there is room to improve, so that is our scenario."