Chasing ghosts? Honda sets astonishing Alonso target

Despite propping up the grid in a disastrous 2026 campaign with Aston Martin, Honda has publicly set its sight on a goal so ambitious it borders on the fantastical: delivering a third F1 World Championship to Fernando Alonso.

To put that ambition in perspective, Alonso’s second and final drivers' crown arrived back in 2006. The Spaniard’s last genuine brush with title contention came when Sebastian Vettel was still driving a V8 Red Bull in 2013.

Now 45 years old and driving an Aston Martin package that required a staggering 16-component upgrade package just to drag itself to a season-high result of 13th and 14th in Hungary, the prospect of a championship charge feels less like a strategic roadmap and more like pure fantasy.

Dreaming big amid grid-graveling reality

Undeterred by the lap times, Honda chief engineer Shintaro Orihara remains adamant that the manufacturer's operational focus centers on satisfying the veteran driver's demands.

“He has 20 years of experience. So if Fernando says ‘we need this deployment before going into a corner’, then we should respect his opinion,” Orihara stated, outlining the reliance on the driver's legendary feedback.

When pressed on whether making Alonso a champion once again is a genuine objective rather than a PR line, Orihara doubled down.

“That is our target, definitely. So we are working closely, and we know he is a great driver,” he asserted.

“He has a big passion, and he trusts Honda. So we want to bring what he wants, that is definitely our target.”

Alonso still non-committal on 2027

Intriguingly, the man at the centre of Honda’s grand plan sounds far less certain about his own future. Alonso will decide after the summer break whether to continue with Aston Martin – and perhaps whether to remain in Formula 1 at all.

“Driving these cars in places like Spa or Silverstone is not what I’m dreaming of for my future,” he said. “So we’ll see.”

• Read also: Honda recalls January reality that shattered F1 engine hopes

Those remarks were aimed squarely at the 2026 regulations, whose energy-deployment-heavy power units have already drawn criticism from several drivers.

Aston Martin team principal and managing technical partner, Adrian Newey, remains optimistic that Alonso will stay, but Honda’s championship dream first requires a far more basic step: becoming genuinely competitive.

Whether that optimism holds any water will face its first major test after the summer break at Zandvoort, where Honda plans to debut its heavily hyped new power unit.

Until then, the gap between Aston Martin’s current results and Orihara’s championship rhetoric remains enormous — perhaps the biggest leap of faith in Formula 1 this season.

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