FIA urged to take action over Aston Martin car after new Fernando Alonso onboard comparison

F1 fans are calling on the FIA to take immediate action over the current Aston Martin car on safety grounds, with a new onboard comparison showing the full extent of their power unit vibration issues.

Drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were forced to retire from the Chinese Grand Prix due to issues relating to the team's new Honda power unit.

The vibrations caused by the engine risks causing what team principal Adrian Newey described in Australia as 'permanent nerve damage' to the drivers' hands through prolonged use.

It means that both drivers are currently unable to complete full race distances, while issues with the battery are also affecting their running.

Worrying onboard footage from during the race in Shanghai showed Alonso lifting his hands off the steering wheel on straights, such was the violence of the vibrations being created.

He told reporters that he was 'struggling a little bit to feel my hands and my feet' after lap 20, with the Spaniard pulling into the pits to retire on lap 34.

A new onboard comparison video posted to Twitter, which shows the difference between Alonso's Aston Martin and the Williams of Carlos Sainz at the start of the Chinese Grand Prix, paints an even more concerning picture.

The footage shows that, even when Alonso is standing still on the grid, there are significant vibrations as soon as he revs up the engine.

These vibrations naturally get worse as he moves off the grid, to the point where the onboard T-cam is shaking sufficiently enough to make it difficult to focus on the car.

On the contrary, Sainz's Williams shows no signs of vibrations beyond what you would normally expect from a Formula 1 car.

Reacting to the comparison video, one fan wrote: "They shouldn't be allowed to race until they fix their car. This is unacceptable and it's dangerous for Lance and Fernando."

A second agreed: "Seeing this I worry for Alonso's wellbeing. It's straight up dangerous. This has to be addressed PRONTO."

A third said: "Even the camera is shaking. How is this legal?"

While a fourth asked: "How is this deemed safe??"

Aston Martin's power unit problem explained

Aston Martin had used Mercedes power units since their rebranding from Racing Point in 2021, though decided to switch to Honda power ahead of the 2026 season.

Although Honda had an unsuccessful stint with McLaren - where, coincidentally, Alonso was driving - between 2015 and 2017, they worked closely with Red Bull to produce their championship-winning 2021 car.

From 2022 to 2025, they formed a collaboration with Red Bull Powertrains as Red Bull won both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

The agreement with Aston Martin marks Honda's return to F1 as a works engine supplier.

But according to Newey, there were initial concerns about delays in the project towards the end of 2025, with himself, owner Lawrence Stroll and chief strategy officer Andy Cowell visiting Tokyo for an update late last year.

He said in Melbourne that all three men were told many of Honda's previous F1 staff had been redeployed to work on other projects.

"They didn't bring the experience that they had previously," Newey said.

Honda have brought in various solutions to attempt to address the problem.

It had been indicated that the vibrations are not only potentially affecting driver safety but also car reliability, with Motorsport.com reporting that they are causing significant damage to the team's battery units.

Honda's trackside general manager, Shintaro Orihara, says that is not the case, though Honda have identified a number of other reliability issues with the battery.

"Reliability is our challenging point to improve," he told Motorsport.com. "So still we are working hard in dialogue with Aston Martin, and then we found something, another countermeasure, so maybe we can try something.

"We are trying to repair the battery. We saw some good progress in terms of repairing.

"I can't say detail point, but we are keeping working hard to repair the battery. So, maybe we can repair the battery, because that battery issue is not relating to vibration, just small things inside the battery."