Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey has raised serious safety concerns about the vibrations from the team’s new Honda engine, warning that the effect on drivers’ hands could cause permanent nerve damage after just a few laps.
Speaking on the eve of the new Formula 1 season, Newey said the problem is a major issue for the team as they prepare for Sunday’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
“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.
“But the much more significant problem is that the vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers.
“So Fernando [Alonso] is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage to his hands.
“Lance [Stroll] is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.”
The vibrations in the Honda power unit contributed to Aston Martin completing the lowest mileage of any team during pre-season testing, complicating both performance and reliability prospects.
The team has introduced countermeasures aimed at preventing the vibrations from causing failures in the hybrid battery system, which affected testing, but the issue still transmits through the chassis into the steering.
Honda F1 boss Koji Watanabe said the effectiveness of the fix would only be confirmed once the cars hit the track on Friday.
Newey emphasised the need for transparency: “There’s no point in not being open and honest in this meeting on our expectations. 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.”
Alonso described the physical impact: “The vibrations made my hands and feet feel ‘numb’ after a number of laps, but if we were fighting for the win, we can do three hours in the car, let’s be clear. But definitely it is something that is unusual. It shouldn’t be there.
“We don’t know the consequences either if we keep driving like that for months. So a solution has to be implemented.”
He added that the team would determine their race approach after practice and qualifying, once the effect of the new modifications was better understood.
Performance is another concern, as the Honda engine is struggling under new F1 regulations that enforce a 50-50 split between the internal combustion engine (ICE) and the hybrid electrical system.
Watanabe declined to comment on reports that the electrical side is around 50kW (67bhp) down on the competition, but admitted reliability issues had prevented the team from running the power unit at full revs.
Newey explained the performance challenge: “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 to cover for that lack of ICE power, which means that by the time you really want that electrical energy on the straights, your battery’s gone flat. It becomes a self-fulfilling downward spiral.
“The straightforward calculation of what ICE power means on lap time is compounded by the effect of lack of electrical energy. Do I believe in our partners and Honda’s ability to bring that power up and to be competitive? Absolutely. They have a proven track record, and we have total faith.”
The team’s performance has also been hindered by a condensed development period. Newey joined Aston Martin in March last year, changing the design philosophy and delaying the wind tunnel programme until mid-April, leaving the team at least four months behind rivals in aerodynamic development.
“Chassis-wise, we are a bit behind the leaders – maybe the fifth best team,” Newey said. “The performance gap between the Aston Martin chassis and the best was somewhere around three-quarters of a second – maybe a second.
“The car has huge, tremendous development potential in it. It will take, of course, a few races for us to fully realise that potential. 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.”
Boluwatife Enome
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