"They are currently dominating the sport" - Fernando Alonso praises Honda for its F1 revival after a tough start to the turbo hybrid era

Fernando Alonso has praised Honda for its recent success in F1 as an engine manufacturer following his contract extension with Aston Martin.

Back in 2015, Alonso left Ferrari to rejoin McLaren on a three-year contract. Little did he know that for the next three years, he would struggle with an underperforming car and power unit.

That year, Honda made a return to F1 with McLaren. However, their first few years were horrendous, so much so that Alonso screamed on the team radio at the Japanese GP that the Honda engine in his McLaren felt like a "GP2 engine."

Fast forward to 2019, Honda left McLaren and partnered with Red Bull, and delivered engines to them. Their partnership garnered a lot of success as they were able to challenge top teams like Mercedes and Ferrari and win several world championships.

After the infamous 2021 season, where Max Verstappen won his first world championship by driving a Honda-powered Red Bull, Honda withdrew from F1 as a proper engine manufacturer. However, they offered to develop an engine for the Austrian team that would be used until the end of 2025.

Moving forward, Honda will once again enter F1 in 2026 with Aston Martin. Since Fernando Alonso recently extended his contract with the Silverstone-based team, he will reunite with the Japanese engine suppliers after a few years.

Speaking about Honda's past struggles and recent success, Alonso said:

“Honda is definitely a manufacturer that has so much success in F1, and not [only] F1 [but] in the world of motorsport, that it’s always a company that I respected. It didn’t work for us in McLaren, in the years that they came [back] to the sport, but right after that they fixed all the problems.

“They are currently dominating the sport, and they’ve been world champion for the last few years [with Red Bull]. I think they will have a baseline for 2026 that is already very strong, but also they have the capacity in Sakura of building something really nice. Obviously, with the sustainable fuels that we will have in 2026, this is something that also I would love to experiment [with].”

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Fernando Alonso claims Honda was one of the factors for him deciding to continue with Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso also stated that Honda's partnership with Aston Martin was one of the reasons why he decided to continue with the British team.

Despite his rocky relationship with the Japanese carmakers from his McLaren days, Alonso praised Honda's recent success and wanted to reunite with them. He also praised other team partners like Aramco.

"Part of the decision to stay with Aston is because they are with Honda for 2026. It is because they are with Aramco, the biggest and best partner in the world. So there were a lot of factors that made 2026 very appealing with Aston," Alonso said.

Fernando Alonso's new contract allows him to drive for Aston Martin until the end of the 2026 F1 season.