Formula 1 experienced another worrying chapter for Aston Martin at the 2026 China GP, with Fernando Alonso retiring from the race after feeling strong physical discomfort caused by vibrations in the car. The Spaniard revealed that the situation affected not only his hands but also his feet, making it impossible to continue the race in Shanghai.
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The retirement happened on lap 35, when Alonso took his Aston Martin back to the pits. According to the two-time champion, the vibration level had reached an unsustainable point, especially since he was already a lap down, in last position, with no real prospect of recovery.
Even before the start of the season, the team had already admitted concern about this problem. Adrian Newey had revealed before the opening round in Australia that both drivers were at risk of permanent nerve damage in their hands because of the vibrations generated by the Honda battery in the chassis.
During the race in China, onboard images showed Alonso letting go of the steering wheel for brief moments to relieve the impact of the vibration on his hands. After the race, however, the driver explained that the problem was not restricted to that area of the body.
“I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish the race anyway,” Alonso said. “The vibration level was very high at a certain point. From lap 20 to 35, I started having difficulty feeling my hands and feet a bit.”
The Spaniard made it clear that the decision to retire was not only related to the race position, but also to the increasing intensity of the discomfort. “We were a lap down, we were last, and it probably didn’t make sense to continue,” he said.
Until the problem worsened, the race had proceeded relatively normally for the Aston Martin driver. Even so, Alonso said that the vibration was worse in the race than in any other activity of the weekend, without the team knowing exactly why.
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“Today was worse than in any other session of the weekend, to be honest. I don’t know for what reason,” he said. The statement reinforces the team’s difficulty in fully understanding the car’s behavior in different track conditions.
Alonso also explained that some measures adopted by Aston Martin to reduce the problem worked only partially. According to him, the team tried to mitigate the vibration by artificially reducing certain engine parameters.
“Some of the steps we took were achieved artificially, lowering the engine RPM and things like that, so that everything vibrated less,” he explained. The problem is that, in a race, this type of limitation has a direct effect on performance.
The Spaniard pointed out that, in moments of overtaking or energy recharging, it is still necessary to raise the engine revs significantly. This causes the vibration to increase again and the physical effort to increase lap after lap.
“In the race, obviously you still need to use higher revs when you try to overtake, or when you need to recharge energy. So, as time goes by, it becomes more difficult and more demanding,” he concluded.
The situation again exposes a critical point for Aston Martin at this start of the season. More than a matter of pure performance, the problem begins to directly affect the physical condition of the drivers, which increases the pressure on the team to find a quick solution.
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