{"id":555559,"date":"2026-03-23T15:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/555559\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T15:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:43:10","slug":"fernando-alonso-to-skip-f1-japanese-gp-fp1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/555559\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernando Alonso to skip F1 Japanese GP FP1"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fernando Alonso<\/a> will sit out Free Practice 1 at Formula 1\u2019s Japanese Grand Prix, ceding his Aston Martin AMR26 to third driver Jak Crawford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to F1\u2019s sporting regulations, every team must enter a rookie driver (two grand prix starts at most) on four occasions this season \u2013 two for each car. This normally occurs in FP1 sessions.<\/p>\n

Other than Racing Bulls<\/a> with newcomer Arvid Lindblad<\/a>, Aston Martin is the first outfit to start fulfilling this requirement this year.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

Alonso will therefore skip the first session at Suzuka, with Crawford getting his third FP1 outing with the squad after Mexico and Abu Dhabi last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited to get behind the wheel and drive for the team at Suzuka. It\u2019s such a historic yet demanding circuit, and I can\u2019t wait to apply what I\u2019ve learned in the simulator to real track conditions,\u201d the American said. \u201cA big thank you to the team for giving me this opportunity. As with my previous FP1 sessions, I\u2019m looking forward to making the most of it and learning as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s F2 runner-up has embarked on a racing-less campaign as Aston Martin\u2019s third driver; he\u2019s still chasing his F1 dream.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think \u201827 is, of course, my closest shot [to get a race seat in F1],\u201d Crawford said at last year\u2019s Las Vegas Grand Prix<\/a>. \u201cI’ll be hopefully still relevant then, after only a year out racing in F2, ending that well, and being in the paddock at all the races next year. I feel like it’s good to be around the paddock, it keeps your name on people’s mouths, people see you. So I think \u201827 is my best opportunity for a race seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jak <\/p>\n

Jak Crawford, Aston Martin Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Aston Martin Racing<\/p>\n

Crawford was a natural choice for Aston Martin, with reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne<\/a> a two-season veteran with McLaren<\/a> a decade ago, while academy driver Mari Boya is just making his debut in F2.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great that we\u2019re able to give Jak another opportunity in FP1 as part of our ongoing commitment to developing young talent,\u201d chief trackside officer Mike Krack said. \u201cHe has been working hard, especially in the simulator back at Silverstone, and this session will allow him to continue building valuable track experience. It\u2019s an important opportunity for him to keep progressing, while also contributing to the team by gathering useful data and feedback.\u201d<\/p>\n

The upcoming Japanese Grand Prix might be another bruising experience on Honda\u2019s turf, after Aston Martin\u2019s season so far has been derailed by its new powertrain\u2019s lack of reliability \u2013 vibrations from the engine damage batteries and even cause driver health concerns. As a consequence, the AMR26 can\u2019t complete a full race distance.<\/p>\n

Asked about his expectations for Suzuka right after the Shanghai race, Alonso replied: \u201cLet’s see. Obviously, from Australia to China, we only had five days. The engine was exactly the same as in Australia.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we have two weeks, so we need more time in the dyno. We need to give Honda more time to understand the vibrations and where they come from. And probably we fix the battery isolation [from vibrations]. All in all, we need to give Honda more time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Filip Cleeren and Stuart Codling<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Alonso will sit out Free Practice 1 at Formula 1\u2019s Japanese Grand Prix, ceding his Aston Martin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[585,3016,49,48,578,3018,215364,576,577,26293,215217,82,215218],"class_list":["post-555559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-aston-martin","tag-aston-martin-racing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-fernando-alonso-to-skip-f1-japanese-gp-fp1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-jak-crawford","tag-japanese-gp","tag-sports","tag-suzuka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}