Honda believes its battery reliability has improved, to the point where achieving a race finish in Japan is possible.
Aston Martin is off to a disappointing start to the F1 2026 season, with vibration issues severely curtailing the reliability of the car and power unit package, as well as preventing the team from concentrating on the pursuit of performance.
Honda confident Aston Martin can finish Suzuka race
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Vibration issues affecting the battery pack area of the Honda power unit have been a key focus for the Japanese manufacturer as it battles to reach a stable baseline that will allow Aston Martin to begin unlocking performance in the AMR26.
For the first two race weekends, Honda has been rolling out countermeasures aimed at reducing the vibrations that have plagued its pre-season preparations, and, although improvements have been made, issues linger: Stroll retired early in the Chinese Grand Prix two weeks ago, while Fernando Alonso withdrew from the race halfway through, due to extreme discomfort through his hands and body from the excessive resonance.
The issue that forced Stroll to stop on track on Lap 9 in Shanghai wasn’t related to a battery reliability issue, Honda’s Shintaro Orihara explained on Thursday morning at Suzuka, as he confirmed the root cause of the stoppage has been identified.
“We found the root cause of the issue, and we applied some countermeasures for this event,” he said, when asked what countermeasures have been put in place for the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.
“We can’t improve, we can’t change the specification for performance, but we gathered a lot of data from China, and we analysed that data and implemented our simulation to improve our energy management strategy for this event.
“I can’t explain the theory point, but we have found the issue. We did some analysis in Sakura, and we fully understand what happened, and we applied countermeasures.”
As for the number of batteries available, following Aston Martin only having two available as the season started in Australia, Orihara declined to state how many are now available, but hinted that more are on hand as he said Honda is now “confident” in that area.
Joined by Aston Martin’s chief trackside officer, Mike Krack, the Luxembourger said both sides have worked hard together to improve the situation for Suzuka.
“We have worked together on different measures for mitigating both the hardware and also the driver’s side,” he said.
“So there are steps in place that obviously we need to test here and then see how we continue.”
From a battery reliability perspective, Orihara said Honda is now confident of being able to finish the race, and Krack agreed that this “remains the objective” after two consecutive race weekends in which neither car has made the chequered flag.
“I think we made a small step in that direction in China, but it was not good enough,” he said. “So the objective has to be to finish with both cars.”
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Lance Stroll: Aston Martin AMR26 has potential
Speaking at Thursday’s FIA driver’s press conference, Stroll spoke of the difficulties still facing Aston Martin.
With Alonso absent from media duties on Thursday due to a family matter, the Canadian offered some insight into the mentality that he and his teammate are taking into the weekends at present, knowing they are facing extensive vibrations that make their time behind the wheel unpleasant.
“It’s very uncomfortable,” he said.
“But, at the end of the day, we just want to be much more competitive as a team. That’s the most painful thing for everyone.
“We’re all pushing very hard to just bring more performance and get back in the fight where we want to be, which is up at the front of the pack.
“So that’s everyone’s focus. It’s just about getting there as quickly as we can.”
Asked whether there’s anything he is doing to prepare for the vibrations from a physical perspective, Stroll denied that there is any lingering discomfort once he’s out of the car, following on from Adrian Newey claiming his drivers were risking “permanent nerve damage” when he spoke ahead of the Melbourne race weekend.
“Not much to do physically, no,” Stroll said.
“Well, we need to improve the vibration. We need to improve the reliability. But, even when we’re finishing laps, we’re three seconds to three and a half seconds off the lead cars.
“So there are a lot of things to improve. Even when we fix the vibration and improve the reliability, we need to find performance in the engine, more power, and more downforce. So a lot of areas to work on.
“Everyone’s just working as hard as they can to improve the situation. For sure, none of us is happy with where we are.
“It’s not the start of the season that we hoped for, but it is what it is, and just working as hard as possible to improve it.”
With Aston Martin distracted from the pursuit of performance while trying to establish a baseline of reliability and stability, Stroll said that he believes the AMR26 does have some inherent potential to be competitive.
“I think so, yes,” he said.
“We know we have issues on the engine side; there are areas we need to work on with the car. I think high-speed corners are still a weakness for us.
“So, yeah, we’re just trying to improve in all areas that we can, that we know need work. And, yeah, it’s just bringing performance as quickly as we can.
“We’re just trying to improve the issues we had in China. We had big vibration problems, reliability issues, so just tackling some of those problems, and I think getting both cars to the chequered flag would already be a good step forward for us.”
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