Adrian Newey feels ‘powerless’ as Aston Martin left with two Honda batteries

Adrian Newey confirmed that Aston Martin has just two working Honda batteries left at the Australian Grand Prix, having started with four.

Those batteries, Newey confirmed, are the ones bolted into the cars of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Newey opened up on feeling “powerless” in the present situation, as analysis continues to discover whether Honda’s trialled fix for its engine vibration issues has made a difference.

Aston Martin has two batteries left in Melbourne

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Alonso was forced to miss the entire FP1 session in Melbourne, while Stroll was restricted to just three laps, as Aston Martin and Honda’s difficulties from testing spilled over into the F1 2026 season-opener.

“We’re having continuing problems with the battery,” Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey confirmed.

“So we’ve had a fresh problem, if you like, that also communication internally with the battery to its management system.

“But the much more underlying problem, is the vibration issues that we continue to struggle with.”

This vibration issue was deemed a primary factor behind Aston Martin’s struggles in Bahrain.

But, Honda and Aston Martin had been working on solutions ahead of Melbourne. While admitting that the issue was still there, Newey was asked whether any progress has been made.

“So we tried a different solution in Lance’s car today. There’s some analysis going on as we speak as to whether that’s helped or not, and then, depending on that analysis, we’ll define what we do for FP2.”

Newey said ahead of the race weekend that Alonso cannot do more than 25 laps without risking permanent nerve damage, due to the vibrations. For Stroll, it was 15.

With that in mind, Newey was asked what Aston Martin was hoping to achieve across the remainder of the Australian GP race weekend.

He opened up on an alarming battery situation, with Aston Martin down from four, to just two left.

“Well, obviously, 30 laps in each and 50 laps in the race, or whatever it is,” he quipped.

“I think realistically, it’s just trying to manage the problem.

“We are short on batteries. We’ve only got two batteries left, the two that are in the car. So we lose one of those, then it’s obviously a big problem. So we’ve got to be very careful on how we use the batteries.”

On that note, Newey was asked how genuine the risk is that Aston Martin fail to qualify or race in Melbourne.

“The critical point is the number of batteries,” he said. “We came here with four batteries. We’ve had conditioning problems or communication problems with two of those batteries, which means, as we sit here today, [we have] only got two operational batteries.

“That, given our kind of rate of battery damage, is quite a scary place to be in.

“Obviously, we’re hopeful that we can get through the weekend and start two cars and so on and so forth. But it’s very difficult to be concrete at the moment about that.”

Asked if Aston Martin could fly any replacement batteries in to Melbourne, Newey responded: “Unfortunately not. There aren’t any.”

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Newey is one of Formula 1’s most successful, respected figures, having contributed to a total of 26 world championship wins with his car designs.

But, the situation facing him as Aston Martin team principal is stark.

Newey was asked whether this is one of the most challenging moments experienced in his storied career.

“I think it’s one where I kind of feel a bit powerless,” he admitted, “because, clearly got a very significant PU problem, and our lack of running then also means, at the same time, we’re not finding out about the car.

“So our information on the car itself is very limited because we’ve done so little running, and particularly running at low fuel, because running at low fuel, fuel acts as a damper to the battery, so Honda have limited us very much to how much low fuel running we can do. It just becomes a self feeding problem.

“And of course, it’s using a lot of energy in the human sense, as opposed to the kilowatt sense on our part, to try to work with Honda and to produce the best overall solution.

“Because we can turn around and say, ‘Oh, it’s not our problem,’ but this is our problem, because ultimately, the car is the combination of chassis and PU.”

He added: “I think there’s very clear action on Honda to try to reduce the vibration. This is emanating from the PU. They are working on that.

“It’s not going to be a quick fix, because it involves fundamental balancing and damping projects that they will need to conduct. I can’t comment how quickly they can achieve that, but that has to be the main drive.

“Once they’ve got past that, then they can really start to concentrate on performance.

“But at the moment, this vibration issue is sucking all energy in every area, emotionally. Our mechanics were up until four o’clock this morning. So of course, they’re on their knees. The factory has been offering a lot of support. So it’s something we really need to try to get on top of as quickly as possible.”

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