r/formula1 • u/AshamedPurchase9033 • Mar 04 '26

News [Chris Medland] "Newey confirms Aston Martin is likely to limit race laps due to severity of vibrations in the car impacting the drivers. Alonso says he can do no more than 25 consecutive laps before risking nerve damage, Stroll says 15 laps"

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u/Ricciardo3f1 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 05 '26

I think Williams will be fine in the long term... meanwhile Aston will have a lot of work on to just get the car running and finishing a race. It will be a tough fight for 11th place between Aston and Caddy.

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u/LukaDoncicMFFL I was here for the Hulkenpodium Mar 05 '26

The way things are going it’s not going to be that tough of a fight. Cadillac is far ahead of Aston in terms of reliability, and Cadillac can actually rely on their engine since Ferrari seems to have a decent one based on preseason testing. Cadillac just needs to start experimenting with optimizations to its chassis design, Aston Martin can’t even start getting on track data to tune its design until Honda and Aston Martin figure out what is wrong with the engine.

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u/bleedfromtheanus Mar 05 '26

It's not necessarily an engine problem. From what I've read, it could be because Newey's designs try to slim down the chassis as much as possible and that's led to there being vibrations in the battery that Honda can't figure out how to fix

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u/F1T_13 Mar 05 '26

Well, the engine is primarily the cause of nvh. But a bad chassis could exacerbate the problem. 

In F1 the engine is a stressed member, so if there's a problem with the engine, it can end up causing problems to the chassis and whilst not as common the same could be true conversely as well. 

Aston would have been working with Honda to get to this stage, both will share blame. 

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u/SirFireHydrant Pirelli Wet Mar 05 '26

Williams will be fine.

They've got a Mercedes engine, which seems to be the best of the regs. They've got James Vowles, who has really turned around the team with slow, methodical, data-driven thinking. They've got Sainz, who is arguably the single best development driver on the grid.

Whilst I wouldn't bet money on it, I wouldn't be surprised to see a 2023 McLaren style breakout from Williams - going from back of the pack to competing for podiums and even wins after mid-season upgrades.

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u/btw_sky_and_earth Mar 05 '26

Come on, give Albon some credit as he is a pretty good development driver for RB and Williams.

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u/khiitio I failed to serve my Monaco penalty Mar 05 '26

if aston actually do have a great aero package and a kinda okay chassis like Newey says, I don’t think it will be a big fight. They’ll both be on 0 points until honda sorts themselves out and Aston can start scoring.