Aston Martin‘s woes have followed them to China as driver Fernando Alonso had to retire from the Chinese Grand Prix after “struggling to feel his hands and feet” during the race.
After reports of drivers at risk of suffering from permanent nerve damage due to the heavy vibrations in the AMR26, Aston Martin had to make good on their promise to protect their drivers and retire Alonso out of the race after just 30 laps.
Alonso was blunt about the car’s problems following his retirement, admitting he “could not finish the race anyway,” as he was so far behind the pack.
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“The vibration level was very high today,” Alonso said.
“At one point, from lap 20 to 33, I was struggling a little bit to feel my hands and my feet.
“We were one lap behind, we were last. It was probably no point to keep on going.”
Fernando Alonso had to retire from the Chinese Grand Prix due to ‘numb hands’. Â LAT Images
This is the veteran’s second consecutive DNF this season as Alonso completed only 21 laps in Australia before being asked to retire to preserve components.
Despite the team’s efforts to find a fix between races, Alonso insists the vibrations felt worse in China.
“It was worse today than any other session in the weekend, to be honest. For whatever reason, I don’t know,” he added.
“Some of the steps we did [to make it better] were achieved artificially. I mean, just lowering the RPM of the engine and things like that, so everything vibrates less.
“But in the race, obviously, you still need to go high in some of the RPM when you make an overtake move, or when you have to recharge or something like that. Over time, it’s more difficult. It’s more demanding.”
Mike Krack, chief trackside engineer for the team, confirmed the reason for retirement was Alonso’s safety. But he reiterated the team need to take any and all learnings from the race, no matter what issues they face.
Fernando Alonso on the grid with his engineer. Â LAT Images
“Yeah, it was a [driver] discomfort,” Krack said on the retirement.
“We’ve done 33 laps, which we have never done in a row (in the new car), so I think it’s a new learning.
“Over the weekend I think we did 19 in the sprint, and obviously in between you always have a break. I think he [Alonso] also said that if you fight for the win, it is possible to drive [longer].
“We were not in a very strong position at that point, so it was a decision that was quite easy to make.”
Krack said countermeasures to limit the impact of the vibrations had been put in place by Honda, which seemed to offer some protection to the car, if not the driver.
“We had some additional countermeasures here, compared to Melbourne, and the work is continuing, and it’s in all areas,” he added.
“Now, I have to say, we have not had any other issues related to that, other than the driver stopping the race, but we have not had bits falling off or anything like that which can happen as well.
“I think from that point of view we need to keep working, we need to increase the reliability of the whole package, and then we need to work on the performance as well.”
The Aston Martin team has come into the 2026 season with a host of car issues. Â LAT Images
Aston Martin has only a week to work on their issues before heading to Suzuka for the Japanese Grand Prix on March 29.
They will then have a three week gap, due to the cancellation of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, before Miami on May 4.