Race Week Recap #18 - The Azerbaijan GP, Part 1

Hi friends,

Welcome to the first of two weeks where I think we're going to be talking a lot about Aston Martin 👀

Top story of the week: Aston Martin announce partnership with Honda, Aramco and Valvoline

📸 Aston Martin F1 Team

It's not exactly been a secret, that an Aston Martin Honda tie-up was in the works. But now it's been made official: Starting in 2026, Aston Martin will be Honda powered.

Why is this important? Despite Honda's on-again-off-again relationship with F1 (and their very shaky return with McLaren), we've all see what they've accomplished with Red Bull, whose own engine venture is based entirely off of Honda's designs.

This will make Aston Martin a factory team, with the full support of an experienced engine manufacturer behind it. Aston Martin has also emerged as the top contender for Adrian Newey's services, who has experience in designing a good aerodynamic package to wrap the Honda powertrains.

Love him or hate him, Stroll Sr. is not messing around. He is investing heavily in bringing this team to the top, and Honda wants to join him on that journey.

While the 2026 regulations are still getting a lot of pushback - and rightly so in my opinion - there's a very real chance that Aston Martin are setting themselves up to be one of the big dogs in the fight as the new formula comes into effect.

The rest of the stories this week:

• Mercedes announce Andrea Kimi Antonelli for 2025

• Adrian Newey reportedly close to being announced at Aston Martin

• Ferrari confirm Loic Serra will be their new Technical Director Chassis when he joins the team in October

• FIA statement: "All front wings are currently compliant with the 2024 regulations"

• Liam Lawson tested both the RB20 and the VCARB01 at Monza Tuesday and Wednesday

• Audi adjust their expectations for their 2026 F1 debut

• Ferrari partner Santander leaves the team, switches to an F1 corporate partnership instead

• Resurfacing work at Interlagos has begun

• Dorna and FIM renew MotoGP agreement until 2060

• Formula E will race at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit from 2025

• Formula 3 has unveiled the next generation car to be used from 2025

• Formula 3 Champion Leonardo Fornaroli joins Invicta Racing in Formula 2 for 2025

• Jenzer Motorsport confirmed they will no longer compete in Formula 3

• A new, lighter IndyCar chassis is in the works

• NASCAR will use McLaren electronic control units "through 2030 and beyond"

• Tyler Reddick had a really bad time in the car during the NASCAR Cook Out Southern 500

• Hulu is working on a new comedy series focussed around a racing team owner

• Octane Racing Group, the organiser of the Canadian Grand Prix, has been sold to telecom and media company Bell

• The Las Vegas Grand Prix adds Ferrari Challenge support race

And one final thing - I'm keeping track of the Formula 1 Championship math over on Twitter. So far Norris is still clinging to his Championship hopes with his last few results. If you're interested in that sort of thing, you can go check it out right here.

That's it for this week. Until next time, thank you for being here.

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