Aston Martin have admitted that Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will be unable to complete even half the race at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix this weekend for fear of suffering permanent nerve damage because of a vibration problem with their car.
Team principal Adrian Newey, who designed the car, said the drivers were suffering such severe vibration through the steering wheel that they could complete only 25 and 15 of the 58 laps respectively. The vibration, caused in the engine and amplified across the chassis, is transmitted into the drivers' fingers.
“That vibration into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems, mirrors falling off, tail lights falling off,” Newey said. “But the much more significant problem is that vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers. 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 striking revelation is a hammer blow to Aston Martin, who had already struggled in pre-season testing with reliability problems centred on the engine. Honda, the engine manufacturer, have attempted countermeasures but they do not solve the problem. Newey admitted he had not yet fully discussed the issue with Honda's president, Koji Watanabe. “It’s something that unfortunately Koji and I haven’t had a chance to discuss properly,” Newey said.
Alonso, who endured an underperforming Honda engine at McLaren between 2015 and 2017, shared his concerns. “The vibrations coming from the engine are hurting a little bit the components in the car and as drivers we feel them,” he said. “We feel our body with this frequency of the vibrations that you feel after 20 or 25 minutes a little bit numb. It shouldn’t be there and we don’t know the consequences either if you keep driving like that for months. So a solution has to be implemented.”
