Aston Martin will attempt full Chinese Grand Prix distance if ‘allowed’, Fernando Alonso says – The Athletic
The beleaguered Aston Martin Formula 1 team will attempt to complete the full race distance at the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix if “allowed” do so around its ongoing engine issues, driver Fernando Alonso has said.
Aston is in the middle of a crisis stemming from the poor performance and reliability of the engine built by its new manufacturer partner, Honda.
At last weekend’s F1 season opener in Australia, senior Aston figures revealed the scale of the situation, which had become apparent across three 2026 preseason tests.
Team principal Adrian Newey said in Australia that severe vibration coming from the internal combustion part of Honda’s new V6 hybrid F1 engine was not only breaking other parts of the engine and the Aston chassis, but also leaving its drivers fearing they would suffer “permanent nerve damage.” This was as a result of their hands going numb after a few laps each time they were able to run on track in preseason testing.
Around this revelation, it was anticipated that neither Aston would make the finish of the 58-lap contest in Melbourne.
Stroll was ultimately able to complete the first 33 laps, before he spent a 20-minute period in the pits and then completed a further 10 laps. Alonso did 13 laps before he also spent nearly 20 minutes in the pits, returned to complete a further eight laps and then stopped again, the second time for good.
At the time, Aston said via spokespeople that the lengthy in-race stoppages had been enacted “to make some adjustments” to the two AMR26 cars. Such an approach is highly unusual in F1 races, which reflects how far behind Aston currently is in collecting data to improve its car and the Honda engine.
Rejoining the race for what further laps were possible in Melbourne demonstrates the event had turned into a glorified test situation for the green team.
“We are at square one,” Alonso said in the news conference ahead of this weekend’s event in Shanghai. “We really need the laps, we really need to be able to practice and to find the (performance) window on the car.
“That will obviously be very important for the weekend. I will be happy if we leave China with more or less a normal free practice, more or less a normal qualifying, accumulating laps and attempting the full race on Sunday, if we are allowed.”
Aston’s limitation remains its engine, with Honda down to just two working batteries by the start of the second of three practice sessions in Australia. It had arrived with four working batteries, with the lack of this vital engine part stretching back to its aborted final day of preseason testing last month.
The issue left Stroll unable to take part in qualifying, although he was given permission to race.
The Aston car has been suffering engine issues with new manufacturing partner Honda (Paul Crock / AFP via Getty Images)
Newey is not in China this weekend, with Aston’s chief trackside officer, Mike Krack, instead facing questions from reporters alongside Honda trackside general manager and chief engineer, Shintaro Orihara. “Newey’s absence is pre-planned,” the team said to The Athletic, confirming he would be supporting the race operation remotely.
Krack attempted to shut down continued questioning from reporters on whether Honda still faces the same limit of two batteries to complete the China weekend. Speaking later on Thursday, Stroll said it remained a “very fragile” situation “with the batteries.”
“We have a situation that was disclosed in Melbourne, and I don’t think that we should continue on this battery number discussion,” Krack said.
Orihara did, however, state that Honda is attempting to repair the batteries that were damaged in Australia. “We saw some good progress (on this),” Orihara said.
Honda is continuing to try and reduce the vibration problem, using the data gathered from the running Aston could complete in Melbourne to continue tests back at its factory in Japan. These tests had begun ahead of the Australian event.
Orihara said Honda had now found “another countermeasure” to try and further reduce the issue over the Shanghai weekend.
On Alonso’s hope that Aston will complete Sunday’s Chinese GP — which will follow the first sprint race of the 2026 season on Saturday — Krack said: “When you go racing, that has to be the first target. So, we’ll try.”
The Shanghai GP distance will be 56 laps. The sprint race will take place over 19 laps.
