Will Aston Martin’s horror start in Formula 1 continue in Japan? Just in time for Honda’s home race, the racing team is expecting light at the end of the tunnel.
Aston Martin is having a nightmare season in Formula 1 so far. Honda’s new drive unit is suffering from massive reliability and performance problems. In particular, the strong vibrations of the engine can damage the battery and can also be dangerous for drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
For the home race in Suzuka on Sunday, Honda has now introduced further “countermeasures” to improve the bad situation. There is probably a ray of hope.
“As far as battery reliability is concerned, we have made good progress in the first two races,” said Honda chief engineer Shintaro Orihara on site. And after all: “We are confident that we can finish the race.”
Stroll and Alonso were unsuccessful in both Australia and China. Both cars at the finish – it would be progress.
“Chief Trackside Officer” Mike Krack also explained that the goal for the Japanese Grand Prix must be “to get both cars to the finish.”
It is still unclear how many batteries Aston Martin has with it. “I won’t give a specific number, but we are confident,” was all Orihara said.
Aston Martin: found a solution?
Regarding the measures against the extreme vibrations, Krack said: “We have worked together on various measures to dampen the vibrations on both the hardware side and the driver’s side.”
Alonso parked his racer in China due to strong vibrations. Stroll had a technical defect.
Lance Stroll’s problem is not due to the vibrations. “After China, there was a debriefing, but not only because of that – we had the incident where Lance stopped, so you have to debrief, both from a technical perspective and from an operational perspective: How did we handle that situation?” said Krack.
“And I think that’s good leadership on any team, that you really have to do your homework. We’ve done that, so we’ve come up with some countermeasures here and I really hope they work.”
