Adrian Newey vindicated as Honda admits its F1 experience gap

Adrian Newey’s Honda criticism gains weight

Adrian Newey’s early-season criticism of Honda has been reinforced by the manufacturer’s own assessment of its Formula 1 department. Aston Martin’s team principal warned during the season-opening weekend in Melbourne that Honda had lost much of its previous experience after leaving the championship and later rebuilding its programme.

Honda’s latest comments, however, closely match the concerns Newey raised. The manufacturer’s engine chief, Shintaro Orihara, acknowledged that Honda had experienced a significant loss of personnel after its initial departure from Formula 1. He also conceded that the development of the new group had not yet reached the required standard.

A rebuilt department under pressure

Newey argued in Melbourne that Honda’s previous Formula 1 group had dispersed after the manufacturer’s withdrawal at the end of 2021. When Honda returned at the end of 2022, he said, many of the original personnel were no longer involved, leaving the reformed operation without the same depth of experience.

“When they reformed, a lot of the original group had, it now transpires, disbanded and gone to work on solar panels or whatever, and so a lot of the group that reformed are actually fresh to Formula 1,” Newey said. “They didn’t bring the experience that they had had previously.”

Orihara’s explanation was less confrontational but pointed in the same direction. He said Honda had brought highly talented staff from road-car projects and people who had worked within the Red Bull project into its Formula 1 operation. Yet, by the end of the previous year, the organisation’s overall level of human development was “not sufficient for the Formula 1 level.”

Experience learned through difficulty

Orihara added that winter testing exposed the department to particularly difficult moments. Those setbacks, he said, forced Honda’s personnel to learn how to operate more effectively in Formula 1.

The implication is clear: Honda’s engineers possessed knowledge and high-level skills, but lacked the experience required to apply them consistently in the championship. For Newey, that distinction was central to his original criticism. Honda’s subsequent admission suggests his assessment was not simply an outburst, but a precise diagnosis of the challenge facing Aston Martin’s new partnership.