Miami (AFP) – Honda’s trackside racing boss Shintaro Orihara said Thursday that he is confident they have found solutions to the power unit problems that undermined Aston Martin’s start to the 2026 F1 season. Excessive vibrations made it extremely uncomfortable for two-time champion Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll to drive their cars in the opening three races before the five-week break caused by the Iran war.
But, speaking in Miami ahead of Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix, Orihara said he believed that hardware changes would reduce the problems and make life easier for the drivers. Alonso completed the Japanese Grand Prix, in the final race before the enforced break, but had failed to finish in Australia or China, and Stroll has yet to finish a race this year due to pain from vibrations associated with the new hybrid power units.
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“We have made good progress with the vibration,” Orihara said. “Good on the battery side and it is good for the vibrations for the driver so we are keen to see how these counter-measures work here on the track.”
The big-spending Canadian-owned, Silverstone-based team is bottom of the championship after the opening races and welcomed the enforced break as a chance for Honda to carry out extensive testing back at their Sakura factory. “We applied the countermeasures and checked the vibrations and now we have a lot of data, so we are hopeful,” Orihara said ahead of the weekend, where several tweaks to the rules for the new hybrid era are to be introduced.
These changes were welcomed by the drivers on Thursday as good first steps towards improved safety and spectacle for drivers and fans, but are unlikely to have much effect on the teams’ performances. Most of the top teams, other than leaders Mercedes, have brought major upgrade packages to Miami.
© 2024 AFP
