Aston Martin forced into more drastic action before Australian GP as Fernando Alonso speaks out
Aston Martin have taken more drastic action ahead of the Australian Grand Prix as they continue to explore solutions to a serious power unit issue which is threatening to derail their season.
Team principal Adrian Newey admitted on Thursday that the car's new Honda power unit was causing excessive vibrations.
The vibrations are so severe that they risk causing permanent nerve damage to the hands of drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
Newey says that Alonso feels he can only complete 25 consecutive laps in the car, while Stroll feels he can do 15.
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Aston Martin's practice running was significantly limited on Friday, with Alonso failing to even make it out of the garage for FP1.
A fresh issue has developed during this race weekend, with Newey admitting that the team had already used two of the four battery units - which are part of the hybrid engine - that they brought to Melbourne.
Either one of the issues has the potential to prevent Aston Martin from finishing the Australian Grand Prix, or possibly even stop them from competing at all.
The Silverstone-based team are rapidly exploring potential solutions to what has already become a nightmare scenario.
They did at least manage to get Alonso out of the garage for FP2, and the Spaniard completed 18 laps - albeit with his fastest time being 4.9 seconds behind leader Oscar Piastri.
Stroll, meanwhile, didn't set a representative lap time across the three laps he managed to complete in FP1, and was six seconds off the pace from 13 laps in FP2.
The power unit problems have not affected the rest of the mechanical and engineering teams, it seems, with Aston Martin unveiling seven car updates ahead of FP1.
The front wing, front wing endplate, nose, sidepods and engine cover have all been given significant updates, along with a new diffuser and rear wing.
Speaking to Sky Sports after FP2, Alonso spoke of his confidence that Aston Martin's situation will improve in the coming weeks - but added that most of that responsibility lies with Honda.
"Obviously, we're still analysing the data from FP2," he said. "But it didn't feel much different, to be honest, than in Bahrain.
"We didn't complete too many laps because of the Honda issue in FP1, and some Honda issues as well in FP2.
"We still need to catch up a bit in the weekend programme, and hopefully tomorrow we have a bit more of a cleaner FP3.
"We are OK to do it [the race]. It is more a question of Honda, if they have the stock [in battery units].
"We know where we are. As I said yesterday, we have a big challenge in front of us, but everyone in the team is embracing the challenge, in a way, and trying everything we can to get out of the situation.
"This is Formula 1 - unfortunately, technology is very complex and things require a little bit of time.
"We are running every day, on free practices and every week, Grand Prix to Grand Prix, and maybe we don't see the progress that we want to see.
"But there are things happening. Smaller or bigger, but there is always progress in the team. Let's hope that it's visible in lap time as soon as possible."
What is causing Aston Martin's problems?
Aside from the clear difficulties with power unit vibrations, it appears that the team's problems stem back to late in 2025.
Newey, who was appointed as team principal in November but took over the role at the start of 2026, visited Honda's main base in Tokyo alongside team owner Lawrence Stroll and chief strategy officer Andy Cowell late last year.
Speaking on Friday, Newey explained that, during that visit, all three men were told that many of Honda's previous F1 staff - who worked with Red Bull during their title-winning 2021 season - had moved on to other projects.
"A lot of the group that reformed are actually fresh to Formula 1," the 66-year-old said.
"They didn't bring the experience that they had previously. Plus, when they came back in 2023, that was the first year of the budget cap introduction for engines.
"We only really became aware of it November of last year, when we went to Tokyo to discuss rumours starting to suggest that their original target power, they wouldn't achieve for race one."
The power unit issues also stem back to Bahrain testing, with AutoRacer's Giuliano Duchessa reporting that Alonso and Stroll both placed chewing gum in their mouths while driving in a desperate attempt to limit the vibrations.
Honda Racing boss Koji Watanabe says that, at present, Aston Martin are unable to run at their full engine capacity as they test various solutions.
"We will introduce countermeasures, what we believe to be the most effective solution at this stage, starting this week," Watanabe said on Thursday.
"However, its effectiveness cannot yet be fully guaranteed under the real track condition. So certain conditions will be applied to power unit operation this week ... Further measures are already under consideration."
Topics: Fernando Alonso, Formula 1
Ryan Smart