Honda is making "progress" but is not expecting a miracle in Japan: "Our performance is still not up to our expectations."

Failing to liven up the television broadcast of the Chinese Grand Prix with the kind of veteran overtaking maneuvers that only he seems capable of, Fernando Alonso He distinguished himself rather by his attitude behind the wheel. After waving to Sergio Pérez as the Mexican overtook him, the two-time world champion rested both hands on the steering wheel… for a while. Because, suffering from the intense vibrations of his Honda engine, Fernando Alonso was seen several times letting go of the wheel to try and rest his fingers, bruised by these violent jolts. These vibrations had been identified by Honda several weeks prior, to the point that Adrian Newey had revealed before the Australian Grand Prix that Lance stroll and Fernando Alonso could only cover 15 and 20 laps respectively before risking irreversible nerve damage.

Beyond the aspect of the pilot's pain, the vibrations caused by the Honda power unit are so strong that they lead to breakage of parts, especially the batteries, which fail one after another… to the point of having already reached the limit of the quota allowed for the entire season! "In China, we have made progress in battery reliability by reducing vibrations affecting the systems, but we need to find other solutions to determine the cause of the vibrations that affect the pilots," assures Shintaro Orihara, Honda's general manager of track operations and chief engineer before the Japanese Grand Prix.

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Honda is working on it, but asks for patience.

The Japanese engineer may want to be positive, but it was indeed another battery problem that forced Lance Stroll to retire on lap 9, while Fernando Alonso withdrew after 32 laps. "That's the worst piece of shit I've ever driven in my entire fucking life."Stroll had even ranted over the radio during qualifying. The pressure is slowly starting to mount on Honda, which claims to have made progress between the two Asian rounds to improve things in Japan, without, however, expecting miracles for its home Grand Prix.

"We have also focused our efforts, between China and Japan, on improving our reliability, but our performance is still not up to our expectations, particularly with regard to energy management.", admits Shintaro Orihara. “The Suzuka circuit is a difficult one in this respect, so we have used the lessons learned in Australia and China to better prepare for the Japanese Grand Prix. We are not at the level we wanted to be going into this weekend, but we will continue to work hard to optimize our package.”

For Aston MartinThe end of the tunnel still seems far away.