Mar.6 (GMM) Fernando Alonso has pushed back at suggestions he cannot safely race this weekend, even as Aston Martin’s Honda power unit crisis reached a new low on Friday with the Spaniard sitting out FP1 entirely and Lance Stroll managing only a handful of laps.
Alonso appeared to directly contradict team boss Adrian Newey, who warned earlier this week that vibrations from the power unit risk permanent nerve damage to his hands after just 25 laps. “It’s not painful, it’s not difficult to control the car,” Alonso said.
“The adrenaline rush of driving outweighs any pain. If we were fighting for the win, we could do three hours in these conditions.”
He was also keen to frame the vibrations as fundamentally an engineering rather than a driver problem. “What those vibrations do is eventually break the batteries. That’s the area we need to improve.
“I know they’ve tested three or four solutions in Japan, and I’m curious to see how it works in the car.”
Stroll, though, was less diplomatic about the physical experience.
“I suppose it would be like being electrocuted in a chair or something, and it wouldn’t be far off,” he said. “It’s a very uncomfortable vibration, and it’s bad for the engine, but it’s also bad for the people inside the car.”
Valtteri Bottas captured the wider paddock mood when asked for his championship prediction. “I’m going to say Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, and George Russell,” he deadpanned, “because I think they were sandbagging.
“So they’re going to beat Aston at the very end in Abu Dhabi.”
But despite his famously troubled history with Honda during his McLaren years, Alonso backed the manufacturer. “I have 100 percent confidence that Honda will pull this off. The only question mark is how long it will take.
“Time is running out for me because my career won’t last forever.”
Honda (HRC) boss Koji Watanabe promised the team will be able to run at full power this weekend, though admitted they have yet to establish exactly how much performance has been lost relative to rivals, since full revs were never reached during the Bahrain testing disaster.
Newey explained the vicious cycle the team has been trapped in. “If the combustion engine lacks power, you have to compensate with electrical power. But that was never possible because the vibrations damaged the battery.”
An interim solution has now been implemented, he confirmed – but a dire problem in Melbourne is the total lack of spare batteries.
“We only have two left over – the two that are in the cars,” he said.
But despite everything, Newey remains bullish.
“Once we’ve ironed out our teething problems, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be competing at the front.”
Stroll agreed. “I have no doubts about the chassis. We just need to find more power, and when all the pieces fall into place, I’m sure we can be where we want to be.”