Honda says finding cause of Stroll’s battery problems could take weeks

Stroll’s race at Interlagos ended after 30 laps, with him running 18th and 28 seconds behind Aston Martin team-mate Fernando Alonso in 12th. After the race, Stroll cited a battery issue and said the AMR26 had felt all right up to then. It was his 13th retirement of the 2026 campaign; in Melbourne, he failed to complete enough laps to be classified but did not technically retire.

Honda trackside general manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara said Stroll’s car had suffered a battery issue the day before as well. Honda knew what had happened in the latest failure, Orihara said, but had not identified its root cause. The team would check the data and the battery; he said the search could take a few weeks.

Orihara said Honda’s reliability had improved midway through 2026, before several issues cropped up in the last two or three races. Some were not tied to mileage or simply pushing the car, he said. Honda could not yet say whether the recent battery problems were related to mileage or operating conditions.

The current troubles resemble early-season battery damage caused by engine vibrations, but Motorsport.com says they are likely unrelated. Orihara said Honda needs to identify the cause to develop a fix for 2027 and prevent a repeat.