F1, Aston Martin alarm: Alonso and Stroll fear damage from the car’s vibrations

Il team Aston Martin di Formula 1faces an extremely complicated start to the season after the team boss and designer of the new single-seater,Adrian Neweyrevealed that the pilotsFernando Alonso e Lance Strollthey fear possiblepermanent damage to the nerves of the handsdue to the very strong onesvehicle vibrationsand may not be able to complete theAustralian Grand Prixthe opening race of the season scheduled for this weekend in Melbourne.

La single-seaterdesigned by Newey showed serious problems already inpre-season testsheld in Bahrain, where the team was the slowest of the group and also the one that completed the fewest laps, completing just 128 in three days of testing – a distance that many other teams have covered in the space of a single day. THEtechnical problemsconcern in particular thepower unit supplied by Hondajudged to be unreliable during testing, as well as a significant oneshortage of spare partswhich complicated the work of the mechanics during the tests.

According to what Newey himself explained, however, the most worrying issue concerns theextreme vibrations generate dalla single-seaterwhich propagate through the chassis to the steering wheel and the drivers’ hands. “Those vibrations are also causingreliability problemswith mirrors and rear lights that come off, but the much more serious problem is that they are transmitted directly to thepilot’s fingers“, explained theBritish designerconsidered by many to be the greatest designer in the history of Formula 1. According to Newey, Alonso believes he cannot go more than25 consecutive lapsbefore taking riskspermanent damage to the nerves of the handswhile Stroll considers the safety threshold even lower, around15 giri. “There is no point in not being open and honest on this point,” the coach added, underlining that the team will have todrastically limit the number of revolutionsthat the drivers will be able to ride in the race until the cause of the vibrations is identified and resolved.

Expectations and crisis management

The situation is particularly delicate because the2026 seasonit had started withvery high expectations per la British stablethanks to the arrival ofNew– signed after a long successful career – and also nominatedteam principalwith the task of relaunching thetechnical projectof the team. In the days leading up toAustralian Grand Prixrumors had circulated thatAston Martinhe might even have given up taking part in theinaugural race a causa dei technical and logistical problemsbut the team still achievedMelbourneas expected and will try to manage the situationlimiting the number of laps on the trackwhile working on onetechnical solutionthat eliminates or drastically reduces thevibrations of the car.