MELBOURNE, Australia — Aston Martin may not even complete half of Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, with Adrian Newey saying drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll risk permanent nerve damage to their hands from how much the car currently vibrates inside the cockpit.
The startling revelation about Aston Martin’s car follows a nightmarish preseason which saw the British team complete the least laps and wholly uncompetitive lap times.
Most of the problems stem from Honda’s engine, which is underpowered and uncompetitive, but the extent of the Japanese manufacturer’s issues have now emerged ahead of Sunday’s season-opening race.
Speaking for the first time since the launch of the team’s 2026 car, flanked by Honda’s racing president Koji Watanabe, team boss Newey admitted drivers Alonso and Stroll do not believe they will be able to complete a race distance at the moment, with Honda’s engine causing a jarring sensation inside the cockpit.
“The vibration [from the engine] 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,” Newey said. “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 cannot do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage to his hands. Lance is of the opinion that he cannot do more than 15 laps before that threshold.”
The expectation for a lower lap count from Stroll hinted that the Canadian driver was still suffering the effects of a wrist injury suffered in a bike accident from a training session in early 2023 and exacerbated again last June, although Stroll insisted that was not the case in the new car.
Billionaire team owner Lawrence Stroll has invested heavily in F1’s new regulation cycle — which has included a new state-of-the-art factory, wind tunnel, and the signing of design legend Adrian Newey as team boss — but his dream team threatens turning into a dud before the first race of the new era.
ESPN’s rankings going into the new season had Aston Martin plumb last behind brand new team Cadillac.
Newey appeared to confirm the team will not be finishing Sunday’s race unless a quick fix can be found.
“On our expectations, it is something that unfortunately Koji and I haven’t had a chance to discuss properly,” Newey said. “But 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 and improve the vibration at source.”
Thursday’s news conference developed in a farcical fashion which seemed to perfectly sum up the team’s current situation.
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Newey grew increasingly frustrated as the microphone repeatedly cut out during his and Watanabe’s answers in front of a hospitality unit packed full of journalists and team members.
Aston’s two drivers appeared to be in better spirits in the news conferences which followed a few hours later.
Two-time champion Alonso, who has been waiting for his 33rd F1 win since 2013, played down the severity of the vibrations in the car and said he could stomach it if the car was competitive.
Speaking about the vibrations in the car, he said: “[It’s] not painful, not difficult to control the car. The adrenaline is way higher than the pain. If we were fighting for the win we could do three hours in the car! I think that overcomes anything when you are on the car.
“But definitely it is something that is unusual. It shouldn’t be there and we don’t know the consequences either, if you keep driving like that for months, so a solution has to be implemented and as I said everyone is trying every day in Japan to fix the things, so we are here to help as well.”
While Newey had given a bleak assessment of the weekend’s prospects, Alonso did not appear to be ready to write off the opening weekend completely.
When asked if the call to retire the car would be on him based on the feeling within the car, Alonso replied: “We will see. In a way, deep inside, I have the feeling that problems will be fixed every time I jump in the car, I close the visor and I really hope that everything will be better.
“After the last few weeks in Japan I think for us it is important to test the car tomorrow, on Friday and then maybe decide Friday night, Saturday night, let’s see how things go and as I said I have a feeling on me that it could be all fine and we can do a normal weekend, but let’s see.”
As for Stroll, son of owner Lawrence, he delivered an optimistic message about the coming season.
“It’s life, you know, sometimes you’re a driver and some seasons you get in the car and it’s magic, and some seasons you get in the car and it’s shit! You just have to go with it and work with what you have. Right now times are tough, but I believe the future is very bright.
“I have full belief in Adrian and he’s done this once or twice before, so, I have full belief in us as a team, Honda included.”
Despite the trying couple of weeks, Newey insisted the ordeal has helped to solidify the relationship with the team’s new engine partner.
“The positive out of this is that our relationship has strengthened,” Newey added. “The relationship between Honda and AMR. We are working very much as a partnership now.
“That is good, clearly. I think we are able to help each other. I think the important thing to understand though is that the battery is the thing that we have been focussing on.”
Newey is considered the greatest car designer in the history of Formula 1, winning titles with three different teams over multiple decades.
He was made team principal late last year having originally joined Stroll’s super-team in April as shareholder and managing technical partner.
