Honda, along with Aston Martin, are gearing up for this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix, as their fans will not have much to cheer about given the dire state the team find themselves in at the moment.
As the third Grand Prix of the 2026 Formula 1 season is upon us, Honda and Aston Martin are yet to find a way to solve the issues of their package, with vibrations still causing problems both in terms of reliability and the matter of the drivers' health and safety.
Previewing the Japanese Grand Prix, Shintaro Orihara, Honda's Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer tried to find positives.
He said: "Before I joined the Honda Formula 1 project, I was a big fan of Honda and motorsport. I have been attending Suzuka for decades; I was always excited to watch the sessions and cheer for Honda, so I know how passionate the fans are!
"Now I am proud to work in front of them, and we will keep pushing hard to show them what we can do. We know we can count on their support even if we would like to show better results on track."
In the Chinese Grand Prix, Lance Stroll retired with car issues while Fernando Alonso was asked to retire as well, as the excessive vibrations were becoming quite detrimental to his hands, as onboard footage showed him taking his hands off the steering to ease the pain.
Looking back on that race, Orihara said: "In China, we made some progress in terms of battery reliability thanks to a reduction in the vibration affecting the systems, but we must find more solutions to establish the cause of the vibrations affecting the drivers.
"We have also focused our efforts in the gap between China and Japan to continue to improve our reliability, but still our performance is not where we want it to be, especially regarding energy management.
"Suzuka Circuit is a tough track for this, so we have been using the learnings from Australia and China to prepare better for the Japanese Grand Prix.
"We are not at the level where we wanted to be going into this weekend, but we will keep working hard to maximize our package. We are looking forward to seeing the home crowd and the Honda fans.
"I want them to see that we have made some progress since Bahrain," the Honda boss concluded.
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