{"id":542296,"date":"2026-03-15T16:43:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542296\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T16:43:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T16:43:07","slug":"honda-f1-engine-vibrations-led-to-fernando-alonso-losing-all-feeling-in-limbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/542296\/","title":{"rendered":"Honda F1 engine vibrations led to Fernando Alonso \u2018losing all feeling in limbs\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fernando Alonso<\/a> \u201cbegan to lose all feeling in his hands and feet\u201d prior to his retirement from Formula 1\u2019s Chinese Grand Prix, as Aston Martin\u2019s Honda engine problems persist.<\/p>\n

The Japanese manufacturer teamed up with Aston Martin as its new works team for 2026, but it has struggled to adapt to F1\u2019s new power unit rules, suffering from profound reliability issues.<\/p>\n

The vibrations emanating from Honda\u2019s internal combustion engine have been damaging battery after battery, with drivers also suffering physically amid concerns about potential nerve damage.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

As a consequence, both cars retired from the Australian Grand Prix, and the same scenario reoccurred at Shanghai. Lance Stroll<\/a> was struck by a suspected battery issue on lap 10, while Alonso threw in the towel after 32 laps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI retired because the engine vibrations were actually different today \u2013 or rather, excessive \u2013 and starting around lap 20 or so, I began to lose all feeling in my hands and feet,\u201d Alonso told DAZN.<\/p>\n

The Aston driver, who propped up the field behind the Cadillacs prior to his retirement after being overtaken by both of them, added: \u201cContinuing until the end of the race while losing feeling in my hands and feet didn\u2019t make much sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Fernando <\/p>\n

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Alastair Staley \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Speaking in the written media pen later on, Alonso made it clear that he \u2018probably couldn\u2019t have finished the race anyway\u2019 \u2013 though he didn\u2019t specify whether that was referring to a potential battery failure or the aforementioned physical struggles.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The vibrating] was worse today than any other session in the weekend,\u201d he lamented.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were one lap behind, we were last. It was probably no point to keep on going.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Honda\u2019s point of view, there were some positives from the weekend. \u201cWe have improved the vibrations on the systems side, but it\u2019s still an issue for driver comfort,\u201d Honda\u2019s trackside general manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara said.<\/p>\n

But Alonso clarified \u201cthe engine was exactly the same as in Australia\u201d; the veteran pointed to artificial gains that may be linked to the power output from the combustion engine being reduced, though he also insisted Honda needed to be given more time to fix the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the steps we did were achieved artificially,\u201d he said. \u201cI 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Fernando <\/p>\n

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Alastair Staley \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

At least Alonso shone with a lightning getaway on lap one \u2013 an area he has excelled in throughout his career \u2013 jumping from 15th (which accounts for three cars who failed to start ahead of him; he otherwise occupied the 18th grid spot) to 10th.<\/p>\n

But, five laps later, he was back in 15th.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, the starts are fun,\u201d the Spaniard commented. \u201cSame as in Australia, the car seems to start really well. On lap one it’s true that we all have the same level of battery, which is full. Then we enter this battery world championship, and in that we are not as good as the others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos from Chinese GP – Sunday<\/p>\n

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\"Andrea<\/p>\n


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Read Also:<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Alonso \u201cbegan to lose all feeling in his hands and feet\u201d prior to his retirement from Formula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[2495,8541,64,63,263305,817,264921,845,813,816,268708,10310,85],"class_list":["post-542296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-aston-martin","tag-aston-martin-racing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chinese-gp","tag-f1","tag-f1-chinese-grand-prix","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-honda-f1-engine-vibrations-led-to-fernando-alonso-u2018losing-all-feeling-in-limbsu2019","tag-lance-stroll","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}