Fernando Alonso says he could not feel hands or feet during Chinese Grand Prix

SHANGHAI – Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso retired from the Chinese Grand Prix on March 15 complaining that he could not feel his hands and feet due to the excessive vibration of his Honda-powered car.

The two-time world champion had pinned high hopes on the 2026 engine and chassis reset – the biggest regulatory overhaul in decades – and on designer Adrian Newey’s first car for the British team, but the outfit struggled at the back of the field.

“From lap 20 to 35, I was struggling a bit to feel my hands and my feet,” the Spaniard told reporters. “We were one lap behind, we were last, and there was probably no point to keep going.”

Honda, whose engines powered Max Verstappen to four drivers’ world championships with Red Bull, are up against it to identify and fix the issue ahead of their home race in Japan on March 29.

Alonso told reporters that there were “artificial” fixes, but that the engine needed more time on the dynamometer to determine how to run it in a way that would make racing more bearable.

“There’s lowering the RPM (revolutions per minute) of the engine and things like that, so that the thing vibrates less, but in the race obviously you still need to go high in the RPM when you make an overtake or you need to recharge,” the 44-year-old said.

“We need to give Honda more time to understand the vibrations and where they come from,” he added.

Alonso’s teammate Lance Stroll, who also retired from the race, was more dismissive.

“Unless they can find some magic in the next 10 days, pray. Pray for me,” the Canadian driver said when asked whether he thought Honda could fix the issue ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Also failing to finish the race in China was Verstappen, who retired after 45 laps due to a car issue.

That abbreviated finish came on the heels of the 28-year-old’s “disaster” during the sprint race on March 14.

“Same problem as yesterday in the start, so we were last again, and then tried to find my way forward but again the same problem as in the sprint, where there was just a lot of deg (tyre degradation), a lot of graining on the tyres,” the Dutchman said.

“That always makes it very complicated, and then we had to retire the car with the ERS (Energy Recovery System) cooling issues.”

When pressed about how Red Bull can respond following an uneventful weekend, the four-time world champion was quick with a response.

“Yeah, I mean, a lot to learn from,” he said. “It’s definitely not where we want to be, of course, but I also know that the team is giving it everything, so it’s frustrating for me but also frustrating for them.

“At the end of the day we need to try and figure it out together. We’ll of course try to be a bit better for Japan, but after that we have a bit of a bigger break now that hopefully we can use to sort some stuff out.”

REUTERS