{"id":348906,"date":"2026-03-26T14:06:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/348906\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T14:06:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T14:06:18","slug":"f1-news-fernando-alonso-delays-suzuka-arrival-amid-birth-of-first-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/348906\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 news: Fernando Alonso delays Suzuka arrival amid birth of first child"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/XPB_1400512_HiRes.jpg\" alt=\"Alonso delays Suzuka arrival amid birth of first child\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFernando Alonso will miss Thursday&#8217;s media day in Suzuka ahead of the birth of his first child. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/294238\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/294238.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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<p>\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<p>\u201cAll is well and he will be at the track in time for Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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<p>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<p>His later arrival also comes with him sitting out opening practice on Friday, <a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/f1-news-2026-japanese-grand-prix-aston-martin-fernando-alonso-fp1-absence-jak-crawford-replacement\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">with reserve driver Jak Crawford stepping into the car for FP1<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Refresh your internet.<br \/>\n Super speedy internet with award-winning innovation.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/t\/88747?Url=https%3a%2f%2fsuperloop.com%2f\" style=\"color: purple;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Get some. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The outing forms part of Formula 1\u2019s mandated rookie running, with Crawford already having previous experience in the team\u2019s machinery.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>The Spaniard has yet to see the chequered flag this year after retiring from both opening rounds.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>\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<p>Alonso is expected to be back in the cockpit for second practice on Friday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/speedcafe.com\/f1-news-2026-japanese-grand-prix-suzuka-start-time-how-to-watch-tv-times-live-stream-schedule-details-fox-sports-kayo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">2026 F1 Japanese Grand Prix \u2013 Schedule, how to watch, TV times &amp; more<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.cfjump.com\/92797\/b\/294243\" rel=\"nofollow sponsored noopener\" data-bid=\"1\" data-no-instant=\"1\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none; vertical-align: middle;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/294243.gif\" alt=\"\"\/><br \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Alonso will miss Thursday&#8217;s media day in Suzuka ahead of the birth of his first child. Image:&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":348907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[55010,55740,179395,111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-348906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-aston-martin","tag-fernando-alonso","tag-japanese-gp","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/348907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}