{"id":564736,"date":"2026-03-26T03:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T03:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/564736\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T03:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T03:08:19","slug":"f1-news-fernando-alonso-delays-start-to-suzuka-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/564736\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: Fernando Alonso delays start to Suzuka weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Alonso
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFernando Alonso will miss Thursday’s media day in Suzuka ahead of the birth of his first child. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n

The Aston Martin driver will skip Thursday\u2019s media commitments at the Suzuka Circuit, with the team confirming his arrival has been pushed back for personal reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cFernando is arriving slightly later this weekend for personal family reasons and won\u2019t be attending media day at the Japanese Grand Prix,\u201d Aston Martin said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll is well and he will be at the track in time for Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alonso and partner Melissa Jimenez had previously confirmed they were expecting their first child, with the due date falling across the Suzuka weekend.<\/p>\n

While the two-time world champion is not set to miss the race itself, he has delayed his travel to remain at home for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

His later arrival also comes with him sitting out opening practice on Friday, with reserve driver Jak Crawford stepping into the car for FP1<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The outing forms part of Formula 1\u2019s mandated rookie running, with Crawford already having previous experience in the team\u2019s machinery.<\/p>\n

Alonso\u2019s delayed arrival follows a difficult start to the 2026 season for Aston Martin, with the team battling reliability concerns linked to vibration issues affecting its Honda power unit package.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard has yet to see the chequered flag this year after retiring from both opening rounds.<\/p>\n

Speaking ahead of their engine supplier\u2019s home race, Honda trackside boss Shintaro Orihara admitted progress had been made, but further work remained.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn China, we made some progress in terms of battery reliability thanks to a reduction in the vibration affecting the systems, but we must find more solutions to establish the cause of the vibrations affecting the drivers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alonso is expected to be back in the cockpit for second practice on Friday.<\/p>\n

2026 F1 Japanese Grand Prix \u2013 Schedule, how to watch, TV times & more<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n


\"\"\/
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Alonso will miss Thursday’s media day in Suzuka ahead of the birth of his first child. Image:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":564737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[2495,64,63,817,845,813,816,107978,9910,85],"class_list":["post-564736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-aston-martin","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-japanese-gp","tag-slot2","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564736","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=564736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/564737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}