- 05 Μαρ 2026, 12:06
#902564
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll face 'permanent nerve damage' risk at Australian Grand Prix:
— Adrian Newey, Aston Martin team principal, addressed the media in Melbourne, revealing that safety concerns will limit Alonso and Stroll's performance due to vibrations from the Honda power unit. These vibrations have been a persistent issue since pre-season testing.
“That vibration 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 emphasized the severity of the situation, noting the potential for nerve damage.
“Fernando is of the feeling that he can't do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage into his hands.”
“Lance is of the opinion that he can't do more than 15 laps before that threshold.”
— The team has made progress in addressing battery-related issues, but the core vibration problem persists.
“The battery is the thing that we have been focusing on because that's the critical item on life.”
— Newey explained the technical challenges, highlighting the role of the power unit and chassis in the vibration issue.
“Without giving away any technical details, what we have achieved this weekend, for this weekend, it tested on the dyno over the course of the weekend and got to the solution that we propose, which we will be using here at Melbourne.”
— Koji Watanabe, president of Honda Racing Corporation, acknowledged the ongoing efforts to resolve the power unit issues but refrained from providing a timeline.
“I want to hurry up, but at this moment, it's quite difficult to say when and how.”
“We will introduce counter measures what we believe to be a most effective solution at this stage starting this week.”
“Further measures are already under consideration. So we are not able to share technical detail, so we ask for your patience as we continue working toward full performance.”
VIA: [PLANET F1]
< >