The start of the season is looking particularly complicated for Aston Martin. Fernando Alonso confirms that the strong vibrations of the car are already causing worrying sensations of numbness for the drivers.
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The launch of the 2026 F1 season is not going as planned for Aston Martin. The Silverstone-based team arrives at the first championship meeting with very limited running and many technical questions surrounding its new car.
At the heart of the problem is the Honda power unit, which generates significant vibrations in the car. These jolts propagate through the chassis and affect not only the overall performance of the car, but also the comfort – and potentially the health – of the drivers.
In recent hours, Adrian Newey has even mentioned the possibility of permanent nerve damage if the drivers complete stints that are too long behind the wheel. A worrying scenario that highlights the gravity of the situation at the dawn of the first Grand Prix of the season.
Alonso confirms worrying physical sensations
Present before the media ahead of the opening round at the Melbourne circuit, Fernando Alonso confirmed feeling these vibrations directly in his body. The double world champion explains that the phenomenon is not limited to simple discomfort, but that it causes perceptible physical effects after a certain time on track.
“For us, everything vibrates,” he explained, describing the sensations at the wheel.
The Spanish driver emphasizes that the vibrations affect the entire car and have already complicated the team’s work since testing.
“But it’s not just for us. The car is struggling a bit, which is why we have some problems and reliability issues that have cut short some of our days.”
The vibrations generated by the engine also have direct consequences on certain mechanical components.
“The vibrations coming from the engine are damaging some elements of the car a bit.”
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But the drivers are not spared from this phenomenon: “For the drivers, we really feel them. We feel our body with this frequency. After twenty or twenty-five minutes, we start to have a bit of numbness in the hands or feet.”
A challenge already known with Honda
For Alonso, this situation is not entirely new. The Spaniard already experienced a difficult period with Honda during the Japanese manufacturer’s return to Formula 1 in 2015, when reliability problems marked the first seasons of the partnership with McLaren.
Despite these complicated memories, the driver remains confident in the engine manufacturer’s ability to react quickly to correct the current defects. According to him, the engineers are already actively working on several leads to reduce these vibrations.
“It has been a challenge, but every day in Sakura they are looking for solutions,” he explained, referring to the Japanese manufacturer’s development center.
First improvements already in testing
According to Alonso, some developments have already been tested since the first alerts appeared during testing in Bahrain. Several modifications have even been introduced on the car before this race weekend.
The Spanish driver is therefore curious to see if these adjustments will bear fruit on track.
“Since Bahrain, a few tests have been carried out and some solutions have already been installed on the car, he specified. We are therefore curious to see tomorrow if we can improve the situation.”
For Aston Martin, the priority now remains clear: reduce these vibrations as quickly as possible in order to protect its drivers and stabilize the car’s reliability. Without a quick solution, this problem could quickly become one of the most sensitive technical issues of the start of the 2026 season.
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