Aston Martin and Honda gather key vibration data but Suzuka pace gap remains concern

Honda’s chief engineer, Shintaro Orihara, said the power unit marque gathered useful data on how to reduce Aston Martin’s vibration issue at Suzuka.

The drivers have been struggling so far as the AMR26 vibrates to an uncomfortable degree, so much so that Fernando Alonso had to retire from the Chinese Grand Prix a fortnight ago.

Aston Martin and Honda to analyse vibration data after smoother Friday

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While acknowledging the problem is still present with the car, Honda and Aston Martin have been working together to find a solution as quickly as possible.

At the Honda-owned Suzuka Circuit, however, both Aston Martin drivers lapped well off the pace in Friday practice, with Fernando Alonso’s fastest lap around 3.4 seconds slower than that of session-topper, Oscar Piastri.

Orihara admitted there was a pace deficit to navigate at the start of the weekend, but the two sessions were useful to look to help with Aston’s underlying issue.

“In free practice we obtained useful data to know where we should go to reduce vibrations – not only for the battery system but also for the driver – so that was a useful day,” he said.

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“We had a smooth session on both cars in FP1 and FP2 and we built up a lot of mileage, which is also a positive thing.

“However, our pace is not where we want it to be, so we need to check the data overnight and we also need to optimise this for tomorrow for FP3 and quali to try and find some pace.”

Aston Martin ambassador Pedro de la Rosa confirmed the drivers are still experiencing vibrations behind the wheel, but that the team will be looking to finish the Japanese Grand Prix come Sunday.

“We obviously have been working very hard with the vibrations and will try to reduce them as much as possible,” he said.

“Still, they are there. So we really need to look at the data a bit more in depth, and see where we are, but obviously we’re trying to get that reliability so that we can finish this race, which is our biggest aim.”

Neither driver has been classified at the end of either race so far this season.

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