Mar.31 (GMM) Aston Martin finally saw a car reach the chequered flag in 2026 – but there were no celebrations at Honda’s home race in Suzuka.
Fernando Alonso brought the troubled package home, marking the team’s first race finish of the season after a string of reliability failures.
But the mood remained bleak.
“Nobody on the team is in a mood to celebrate this result,” admitted chief trackside officer Mike Krack. “That’s obvious.”
The scale of the problem was underlined by the pace deficit, with Aston Martin around four seconds per lap slower than the front-runners.
Lance Stroll did not make the finish, retiring after 30 laps with an internal combustion engine water pressure issue.
Even so, simply seeing the car finish felt significant internally.
Honda chief engineer Shintaro Orihara admitted the race felt unusually long as the team pushed just to reach the end.
“We hadn’t crossed the finish line in a while, and up until now, we’d been finishing about halfway through the race, but we wanted to go beyond that,” he said.
“It’s a small step, but we and everyone on the team wanted to finish the race in front of the fans who came to Suzuka, so 53 laps to achieve that felt like a long time.”
However, the underlying issues remain unresolved.
The severe vibrations that forced Alonso to retire in China are still present, despite attempted fixes. Onboard footage from Suzuka showed the Spaniard again taking his hands off the wheel on straights and even massaging his legs while driving – clear signs the physical toll of the problem persists.
“We tried out new measures on Friday in response to what we had been working on since China,” Orihara explained.
“However, we haven’t been able to implement them for the race yet, and the driver’s vibration situation hasn’t changed since the Chinese GP. So I think the driver’s efforts were what allowed us to finish the race.”