Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll face ‘permanent nerve damage’ risk at Australian Grand Prix

Safety considerations for Aston Martin drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will restrict their performance in Sunday’s Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.

Vibrations with the Honda power unit limited the squad’s pre-season testing programme, and while elements of that have been mitigated for this event, a significant impact on drivers remains.

Adrian Newey details vibration concerns for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll

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Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey fronted the media in Melbourne where he confirmed the Silverstone-based squad will have to restrict the number of laps Alonso and Stroll complete.

Work since Bahrain testing to address the vibration issues that impacted the Honda battery has netted gains, but not solved the underlying issue.

Vibrations from the power unit remain, and are transferred through the chassis and into the driver.

According to Newey, they are such that both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll risk permanent nerve damage with prolonged exposure.

“That vibration into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems: mirrors falling off, tail lights falling off, all that sort of thing, which we are having to address,” Newey told PlanetF1.com and other accredited media in Albert Park.

“But the much more significant problem with that is that that vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers.

“Fernando is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage into his hands.

“Lance is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.

“We are going to have to be very heavily restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration and improve the vibration at source.”

During pre-season testing, vibrations led to issues with the battery pack, which inhibited the team’s ability to bank the laps it had hoped to.

Since then, a solution has been found that addresses the issue from a battery perspective. That will be in place this weekend, reducing imminent reliability concerns though not entirely resvolving them.

“The battery is the thing that we are have been focusing on because that’s the critical item on life,” Newey explained.

“Without giving away any technical details, what we have achieved this weekend, for this weekend, it tested on the dyno over the course of the weekend and got to the solution that we propose, which we will be using here at Melbourne on Tuesday, Monday, Tuesday, that has successfully, significantly reduced the vibration going into the battery.

“What is important to remember is, effectively, the PU, the combination of the ICE and possibly the MGU as well, is the source of the vibration. It’s the amplifier.

“The chassis is, in that scenario, the receiver. A chassis, a carbon chassis, is a naturally stiff structure with very little damping, so the transmission of that vibration into the chassis, we haven’t made any progress on.”

Efforts at Honda to develop the power unit through its current issues remaining ongoing however Koji Watanabe, president of Honda Racing Corporation (HRC), was unwilling to put a timeline on a resolution.

“I want to hurry up, but at this moment, it’s quite difficult to say when and how,” he admitted when asked by PlanetF1.com if there was a timeline around a resolution – and whether it would exploit the ADUO process.”

His comments came after the admission that Honda is yet to run its power unit to its full potential, and having confirmed reliability considerations remain in place.

“We will introduce counter measures what we believe to be a most effective solution at this stage starting this week,” he said of the initial vibration fix.

“However, its effectiveness cannot yet fully maintain real track conditions, so certain conditions will be applied to power unit operation this week.

“Further measures are already under consideration. So we are not able to share technical detail, so we ask for your patience as we continue working toward full performance.”

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