Alonso, Stroll fear 'permanent nerve damage' from vibrating Aston Martin / Photo: Paul Crock - AFP
Alonso, Stroll fear 'permanent nerve damage' from vibrating Aston Martin
Aston Martin chief Adrian Newey on Thursday revealed Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll fear permanent nerve damage from extreme vibration in their cars and are unlikely to complete the Australian Grand Prix.
The Newey-designed car suffered issues through torrid pre-season testing, including an unreliable Honda power unit and a lack of spare parts.
They were the slowest car with the fewest laps, completing a total of just 128 over three days in Bahrain -- the equivalent of what many teams did in one day.
Matters have not improved as they prepare for the season-opening race in Melbourne this weekend.
Newey revealed both drivers were suffering such severe vibration through the steering wheel that they would only be able to complete 25 and 15 laps respectively.
"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," he said.
"But the much more significant problem with that is 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.
"I think there is no point in not being open and honest in this meeting," added Newey, considered the greatest designer the sport has seen.
"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."
There was speculation before the Australian Grand Prix that the team may not even compete, but it arrived as planned.
Aston Martin had entered 2026 with high expectations given the arrival of Newey, who was also appointed team principal.
K.Rendon--BT
