'Risk permanent nerve damage': Drastic health fear behind F1 team's decision not to complete Melbourne Grand Prix
Aston Martin drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll cannot complete the Australian Grand Prix without risking permanent nerve damage.
The revelation was made by legendary designer and team principal Adrian Newey, who joined the squad from Red Bull a year ago.
This year's Aston is the first to be fully-designed by Newey, but instead of being the world-beater veteran Alonso would have been hoping for, he's instead been served up a donkey.
READ MORE: Clock ticks on crucial call as F1 faces schedule chaos
READ MORE: 'Australian curse' Piastri can't dodge in Melbourne
READ MORE: Pink ball Ashes Tests axed as England makes curious change
The problem revolves around the Honda engine, which is underpowered, unreliable, and produces vibrations so horrific it literally rattles the car - and also apparently the drivers.
Lance Stroll at the wheel of the Aston Martin in pre-season testing in Bahrain. LAT Images
A day before cars hit the track at Albert Park for opening practice, Newey has effectively confirmed rumours the team would complete just a handful of laps before retiring from Sunday's race.
Speaking to media, Newey said the team had gone a way to reducing the effects of the vibrations on the hardware, but had made no progress on reducing effects on the chassis, which then transfers into the driver.
"That vibration is causing a few reliability problems, mirrors falling off, all that sort of thing, which we are having to address," he said.
"But the much more significant problem is that the vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver's fingers.
Adrian Newey at Albert Park on Thursday. Getty
"Fernando is of the feeling that he can't do more than 25 laps consecutively before he will risk permanent nerve damage to his hands. Lance [Stroll] is of the opinion that he can't do more than 15 laps before that threshold.
"We are going to have to be very heavily restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration and improve the vibration at source."
Honda president Koji Watanabe conceded the vibrations were so bad the team had not even been able to run the engine at full power.
Newey said he still believed the car would be competitive once the root cause of the vibrations was found and remedied, but admitted there was no timeline on when that would happen.
The Aston Martin team completed the fewest laps of any team during testing. Peter Fox via Getty Images
Earlier this week, rumours emerged the team's situation was so dire they were planning to start the race, and then retire both cars two laps later, and they were only in Melbourne because they would be fined heavily if they didn't turn up.
Conditions of the Concorde Agreement, which all teams sign as a part of competing in Formula 1, requires all teams to compete in all races, or cop hefty fines.
It's all to do with money generated by broadcast deals and hosting fees, which are calculated on a full grid of cars - 22 this year thanks to the addition of Cadillac - competing at every event.
In pre-season testing, the car was slow, unreliable, and chewed through a significant chunk of the team's stocks of spare parts. It completed less than half the number of laps of McLaren, and its fastest lap was more than three seconds slower than that set by Ferrari.
There is a force majeure clause in the agreement, but being slow and low on spares is considered a sporting issue and therefore excluded from the conditions.
Honda returns to the sport proper for the first time since the end of 2021, when they powered Max Verstappen's Red Bull to his maiden world championship.
The Japanese brand then exited the sport, and effectively sold the F1 engine program, including all the IP, to Red Bull.
It means it was forced to start entirely from scratch when planning for its re-entry began.
The problems are all too familiar for Alonso, who drove for McLaren when Honda last re-entered the sport in 2015. That entry was also plagued by problems, which at the time were largely attributed to McLaren's demands around making the engine fit into its aerodynamics package, rather than fitting the aero around the engine.
The Australian Grand Prix begins on Friday with two practice sessions, before a third on Saturday. Qualifying will then take place on Saturday evening, before the race on Sunday afternoon.
