F1 Australian Grand Prix: Aston Martin drivers ‘risk permanent nerve damage’ to finish race
Aston Martin will almost certainly not finish this weekend’s Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, if it even starts at all, over fears the vibration of the car could permanently injure its drivers.
The Silverstone-based outfit had a torrid time in preseason testing, with its car the slowest of any other when it was able to put it on the track.
On Thursday, one day before the first practice session of the season’s maiden grand prix, the team principal confirmed the team would do limited laps this weekend.
In a press conference on Thursday, Adrian Newey, in his first season as team principal, told media the vibrations of the car could injure their drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
“That vibration into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems: mirrors falling off, tail lights falling off, all that sort of thing, which we are having to address,” he said on Thursday at Albert Park.
Lance Stroll reportedly does not believe he can drive more than 15 laps before injuring his hands. (Getty Images: LAT Images/Sam Bloxham)
“But the much more significant problem with that is that that vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers.
“Fernando is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage into his hands.
“Lance is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.”
Such is the fear of permanent injury to their drivers, it seems almost certain neither driver will be able to complete the 58-lap grand prix on Sunday.
“We are going to have to be very heavily restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration,” Newey said.
Aston Martin’s preseason testing was plagued by reliability issues, severely restricting how much track time the team could achieve.
Those issues have now made their way into the season, putting Aston Martin well behind the back on the dawn of a new era in F1 chassis and engine regulations.
“The battery is the thing that we have been focusing on because that’s the critical item on life,” he added.
“The transmission of that vibration into the chassis, we haven’t made any progress on.”
Aston Martin is in the first year of its partnership with engine supplier, Honda, which was previously with Red Bull and Racing Bulls.
Honda had initially announced it was leaving F1, but the new engine regulations, which made the electrical side of the power units simpler, gave it a change of heart.
Honda HRC president Koji Watanabe told reporters the Honda team was working tirelessly to address the issues with the power unit, which has derailed Aston Martin’s start to 2026.
“I want to hurry up, but at this moment, it’s quite difficult to say when and how,” Watanabe said, as reported by Reuters.
