ADRIAN NEWEY says vibrations from Aston Martin’s new Honda engine are risking “permanent nerve damage” for their drivers.
lifted the lid on the crisis with their new Honda power unit ahead of the season opener in Melbourne this weekend.
Adrian Newey believes Aston Martin’s drivers could suffer “permanent nerve damage” from their Honda engineCredit: AFP
Aston Martin endured a troubled pre-season with the new AMR26 with them completing the least amount of laps of any of the 11 teams due to reliability issues.
A main problem was the battery for the AMR26, which forced the team to stick to only short runs.
And Newey believes the problem could limit the number of laps from and Lance Stroll.
He said: “That vibration into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems,” Newey said.
“Mirrors falling off, tail lights falling off – all that sort of thing, which we are having to address.
“But the much more significant problem is that the vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers.
“So Fernando [Alonso] is of the feeling that he can’t do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage to his hands.
is of the opinion that he can’t do more than 15 laps before that threshold.”
Alonso said the vibrations made his hands and feet feel “numb” after a number of laps.
But the Spanish two-time world champion added: “If we were fighting for the win, we can do three hours in the car, let’s be clear. But definitely it is something that is unusual. It shouldn’t be there.
“We don’t know the consequences either if we keep driving like that for months. So a solution has to be implemented.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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