which resulted in visits to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia being axed.<\/a><\/p>\nAfter the Japanese Grand Prix, Aston Martin elected to leave its cars there to work closer with Honda on resolving its issues before heading to the United States for the Miami Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
That, it seems, has paid dividends.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur focus over the break was to work with Honda to improve the PU\u2019s vibrations into the chassis,\u201d said Aston Martin chief Mike Crack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat work has paid off and we have taken an important step forward on reliability this weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhilst that is a positive, there\u2019s clearly more we need to do together to improve our pace and unlock the potential of this package.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Fans](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/XPB_1407748_HiRes.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Fans watch Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll on track during the Miami Grand Prix. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
Honda trackside general manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara said the engine manufacturer had made a marked step forward in its understanding.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can see some positives from the Miami weekend with both cars finishing all races for the first time and having no major reliability issues on our power units,\u201d said Orihara.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have found a way to reduce most of the vibrations, which helps us in securing more reliability, even under very warm operating conditions like during Saturday\u2019s Sprint race.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a small step in the right direction which will allow us to work harder on finding more performance. It will take time, but this weekend ticked a few boxes to help us move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking post-race, Alonso gave a brutally honest assessment of Aston Martin\u2019s plight.<\/p>\n
The two-time F1 champion said the upcoming Canadian Grand Prix would be no better than the Miami Grand Prix as the team focuses on driveability over performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to feel repetitive,\u201d said Alson.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, we need to face the media every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe drive fast, but it\u2019s repetitive, the message. We have no upgrades until after summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we expect in Canada is the same, what we expect in Austria is the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the thing that we need to manage, the frustration level from everybody in the team, but I think we are all relaxed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all committed to, after summer, having a better second half of the year. Let\u2019s see if we can do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no shying away from the fact that Alonso is in the twilight of his F1 career and facing an arduous spell with Aston Martin. Nevertheless, the Spaniard is content.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m at peace because I understand the situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team explained to me that if we bring one or two tenths every race, it doesn\u2019t change our position. We are P20 or P19 and the next car is one second in front.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo even if we bring two tenths every race, it doesn\u2019t change our position. And it\u2019s a huge stress in the system, in the budget cap and things like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil we don\u2019t have one second and a half or two second improvement, it\u2019s better not to press the button in production because we waste money.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777348516_29_250635.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso during the Miami Grand Prix. Image: XPB Images Miami marked the first time this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":650376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,85],"class_list":["post-650375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650375","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=650375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/650376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Aston](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/XPB_1406895_HiRes.jpg\")