Honda’s partnership with Aston Martin hasn’t started smoothly, but both sides are pushing hard to turn things around. They will introduce further countermeasures to reduce engine vibrations and improve reliability at this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.
Honda’s Trackside General Manager and Chief Engineer, Shintaro Orihara said: “It has been a long but intense period between the races with lots of work happening in collaboration with the Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team both in Japan and in the UK.
“The Japanese Grand Prix showed that the work is going in the right direction and helped us to find the motivation to keep pushing forward. After that race, we took the opportunity to keep one of the AMR26 cars on site for further static testing in Sakura for the first time, focusing our efforts on reducing the vibrations and thus increasing reliability.
“We have made some progress, allowing us to implement further countermeasures in Miami and later in the season. Realistically, this progress will not have a visible impact on the power unit performance on track, so we shouldn’t be expecting big jumps forward here.”
Speaking to the world’s media in the paddock, Alonso said Honda have been ‘working really hard’ to get on top of their problems — and is cautiously optimistic Aston Martin will be in a ‘better position’ this weekend.
“I think [at Aston Martin’s factory] in Silverstone, about the aero performance, we think that there is pace to unlock there, and [at Honda’s headquarters] in Sakura it’s about two things: reliability and vibrations, and also performance,” said the two-time World Champion.
“It seems that we bring here some solutions for the vibrations and the reliability, and hopefully we see some positive news on the car when we drive it. Hopefully the performance will come in the next step.”