Adrian Newey admitted the rear suspension failure suffered by Lance Stroll during first practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Friday was "unexpected". The incident occurred with around 20 minutes to go in FP1, when the Canadian spun at the exit of turn two and was forced to pull over. Television footage showed the rear-left tyre pointing at an unusual angle as his car came to a stop outside turn three.
Damage prevents Stroll from returning for FP2
The damage could not be repaired in time for Stroll to participate in the second practice session. "Unfortunately, Lance will not participate in FP2. There has not been enough time to repair the damage from FP1," read a statement from the team, issued one minute after the start of the second hour of running.
Newey: Failure not linked to new parts
Speaking between the sessions in the FIA press conference, Newey said the failure was not related to any of the 16 changed parts that constitute the major upgrade package he designed for Aston Martin. "The area involved was actually not being changed," he told reporters. "We are short on spares because the cladding and so forth is different. So there are some minor changes in that area, but in that sense it is very unexpected. Until we have an understanding it's difficult to comment further."
Alonso shows pace but engine oscillations persist
Fernando Alonso was able to produce improved pace in FP1, though oscillations from the Honda engines were present again. Alonso was told during the session to stay away from the kerbs, but Newey insisted that instruction was aimed at gathering better data on the new parts. He said: "Staying away from the kerbs, that is purely because we are acquiring aero data and when you are trying to acquire aero data, you do not want the disruption of kerbs thrown in, the inconsistency that corrupts the data. The oscillations, yes, that is really a question for Honda. They can see it on the data and they are working on the solution."
More upgrades planned after summer break
A new Honda engine is expected after the summer break, and Newey confirmed further chassis upgrades are planned. "The provisional results are promising and it is only part of the package. We will have some more steps in Zandvoort and then further steps in Monza or Baku. So it is the first part of our planned upgrade, and [we are] very short on parts so we have been careful with it and trying to learn all about it. We are clearly on a big catch-up game, so is it going to make us the quickest car? Unfortunately, not. Does it represent a good step forward from where we were? Yes, I believe it does."
