Aston Martin are unlikely to be able to complete the first race of the new Formula 1 season due to concerns over excessive vibrations produced by their Honda power unit.
The problem is so serious the team’s drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, have been forced to restrict the number of laps they complete due to the risk of nerve damage from the vibrations.
Alonso said “I hope to finish the race” in Melbourne this weekend, but confirmed the vibration problems the team had experienced in pre-season tests in Spain and Bahrain. He said the team had made progress towards identifying a solution in the two weeks since the last test.
“It’s true that in Bahrain and Barcelona we faced these anomalous vibrations coming from the engine and I think they are understood. There were a couple of solutions on the dyno since Bahrain and a few of them were positive.
“So hopefully we will have a better feeling now in FP1. But at the moment that was, reliability-wise, tough because we couldn’t complete the programme in testing because always the car was having an issue because of the vibrations, always something breaks down. We need to fix that first.”
He is hopeful the changes the team has brought for the first round of the season will allow them to finish Sunday’s race. “I’m optimistic that after the changes they made the last week, we can have a more normal weekend. That will be the first step to motivate everyone in the team if we can finish the race unexpectedly and that will be a good first race of the year.”
Stroll said the drivers may be limited to no more than 10 laps if Honda haven’t made any progress with the problem since the last test.
“It all depends how much we’ve improved since Bahrain,” he said. “If we still have the same vibration issues we had with the car in Bahrain it’s going to be hard to do much more than 10 or 15 laps.
“If we’ve resolve those issues in the last couple weeks then I think we can we can go much further into the race.”
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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 – when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring journalist, Keith began running the site full-time in 2010, achieving a long-held ambition to dedicate his full attention to his passion for motor racing. View all posts by Keith Collantine