Honda claims that the vibration problems affecting the batteries of Aston Martin’s F1 car since the start of the season are not solely related to its power unit.
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Aston Martin has still not managed to complete the distance of a Grand Prix this year due to difficulties encountered with its new power unit.
When the AMR26 is not victim to major technical failures, its drivers are forced to retire because of the intensity of the vibrations, as was the case for Fernando Alonso during the last race in China.
Integration Problem
Before the Suzuka race, Honda indicated that it was still trying to precisely identify the causes of these vibrations. The president of Honda Racing Corporation, Koji Watanabe, explained on Friday that these appear due to the integration of the engine into the car.
“During bench tests, the vibrations are at an acceptable level, but once the engine is integrated into the actual chassis, they become much more significant than during testing,” he said.
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He believes that modifications to the engine alone will not be enough to solve the problem: “We are therefore working closely with Aston Martin Aramco to address this issue, not only on the power unit, but also on the chassis.”
Accumulated Delay
The improvements brought by Honda this weekend are not aimed solely at reducing these vibrations: “For now, we are focusing on improving the vibration situation, which mainly damages the battery area, but for Suzuka, we have also improved energy management to optimize on-track performance.”
For his part, Lance Stroll, critical after qualifying 21st in China, emphasized that vibrations are only part of the problem.
“We need to improve the vibrations, reliability, but even when we complete laps, we are three to three and a half seconds off the leaders, so there are many things to improve,” he explained. Even if we fix the vibrations and reliability, we will still need to find engine performance, more power and more aerodynamic downforce. So there are many areas to work on.”
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