Aston Martin’s Formula 1 team has raised serious concerns over vibrations from its Honda power unit, warning that the issue could pose potential health risks for drivers and impact the team’s performance as the new season begins.
Team principal Adrian Newey revealed that the vibrations generated by the engine are being transmitted through the chassis and into the cockpit, affecting drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll during testing. According to Newey, the vibrations have already caused mechanical problems with several components on the car and may also have physical consequences for the drivers.
Speaking ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Newey explained that the vibrations were severe enough to potentially cause long-term nerve damage to drivers’ hands if the issue is not resolved.
“That vibration into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems,” Newey said.
“Mirrors falling off, tail lights falling off – all that sort of thing, which we are having to address.”
However, Newey stressed that the mechanical issues are not the most serious concern.
“The much more significant problem is that the vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers,” he added.
The vibrations appear to travel through the car’s steering system and cockpit structure, creating discomfort and numbness in the drivers’ hands during extended stints behind the wheel.
According to Newey, Alonso believes he cannot safely drive more than 25 consecutive laps before risking permanent nerve damage to his hands. Stroll, meanwhile, has reported a lower tolerance threshold.
“So Fernando is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage to his hands,” Newey said.
“Lance is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.”
The issue significantly affected Aston Martin’s performance during pre-season testing, where the team recorded the lowest mileage of any team on the grid.
Limited track time has made it more difficult for engineers to evaluate the car’s performance and reliability ahead of the new campaign.
The team has already introduced technical countermeasures aimed at reducing the vibrations and preventing failures within the hybrid battery system, which also experienced problems during testing.
However, engineers say that although some of the mechanical issues have been addressed, the vibrations continue to travel through the chassis and steering system into the cockpit.
Honda’s Formula 1 chief Koji Watanabe acknowledged the problem but explained that the effectiveness of the team’s fixes would only become clear once the cars returned to competitive running.
According to Watanabe, the Australian Grand Prix weekend will provide the first real opportunity to evaluate the modifications under race conditions.
Newey also emphasised that the team must remain realistic about its situation as the season begins.
“There’s no point in not being open and honest in this meeting on our expectations,” he said.
“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.”
For the drivers themselves, the physical impact of the vibrations has already been noticeable.
Fernando Alonso described experiencing numbness in his hands and feet after spending extended time in the cockpit during testing sessions.
“The vibrations made my hands and feet feel numb after a number of laps,” Alonso explained.
The two-time world champion acknowledged that drivers are capable of pushing through discomfort during races if necessary, but emphasised that the problem is unusual and should not exist in modern Formula 1 machinery.
“If we were fighting for the win, we can do three hours in the car, let’s be clear,” Alonso said.
“But definitely it is something that is unusual. It shouldn’t be there.”
The Spanish driver also warned that the long-term consequences of the vibrations remain uncertain if the issue persists throughout the season.
“We don’t know the consequences either if we keep driving like that for months,” he said.
“So a solution has to be implemented.”
Aston Martin plans to use the practice sessions and qualifying rounds in Australia to assess how well the current modifications perform under race conditions.
The results will determine how the team approaches race strategy and driver stints during the opening races of the season.
Beyond the vibration issue, the team is also facing performance concerns linked to Formula 1’s latest technical regulations.
Under the current rules, Formula 1 power units must operate with a 50-50 balance between the internal combustion engine (ICE) and the hybrid electrical system.
The new balance has increased the importance of electrical power output and energy recovery systems.
Reports have suggested that Aston Martin’s electrical power system could be producing significantly less output than rival engines, potentially by as much as 50 kilowatts, which is roughly equivalent to 67 horsepower.
Honda’s Watanabe declined to confirm those figures but admitted that reliability problems have prevented the team from fully exploiting the engine’s performance potential during testing.
Newey explained that any deficiency in internal combustion engine performance creates a difficult cycle for the hybrid system.
“One of the problems with these regulations is that the shorter you are on ICE power, the more you have to make up for using electrical energy,” Newey said.
This means that drivers may rely heavily on electrical power earlier in the lap, leaving insufficient battery energy for high-speed sections such as long straights.
“By the time you really want that electrical energy on the straights, your battery’s gone flat,” he explained.
“It becomes a self-fulfilling downward spiral.”
Despite the challenges, Newey expressed confidence in Honda’s engineering capabilities and their ability to improve performance as the season progresses.
“Do I believe in our partners and Honda’s ability to bring that power up and to be competitive? Absolutely,” he said.
“They have a proven track record, and we have total faith.”
Aston Martin’s preparations have also been complicated by a shortened development timeline.
Newey joined the team in March last year and immediately introduced significant changes to the car’s design philosophy.
These adjustments delayed aerodynamic development work, including wind tunnel testing, until mid-April, leaving the team several months behind its competitors in refining the car’s aerodynamics.
As a result, Aston Martin enters the new season with a performance gap compared with the leading teams on the grid.
“Chassis-wise, we are a bit behind the leaders — maybe the fifth-best team,” Newey admitted.
He estimated that the gap between Aston Martin and the top teams could be as much as three-quarters of a second to one full second per lap.
However, Newey remains optimistic that the car still has significant development potential.
“The car has huge, tremendous development potential in it,” he said.
“It will take a few races for us to fully realise that potential.”
He added that there is nothing fundamentally limiting the car’s architecture that would prevent Aston Martin from becoming competitive in the long term.
“I see no inherent reason within the architecture of the car why we can’t become, on the chassis side, close to if not fully competitive.”
As the Formula 1 season begins, Aston Martin faces the challenge of resolving its vibration problem while also improving performance under the sport’s new technical regulations.
How quickly the team can address these issues could determine whether it remains competitive in the early stages of the championship.
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