Honda F1 engine vibrations led to Fernando Alonso…

Fernando Alonso “began to lose all feeling in his hands and feet” prior to his retirement from Formula 1’s Chinese Grand Prix, as Aston Martin’s Honda engine problems persist.

The Japanese manufacturer teamed up with Aston Martin as its new works team for 2026, but it has struggled to adapt to F1’s new power unit rules, suffering from profound reliability issues.

The vibrations emanating from Honda’s internal combustion engine have been damaging battery after battery, with drivers also suffering physically amid concerns about potential nerve damage.

As a consequence, both cars retired from the Australian Grand Prix, and the same scenario reoccurred at Shanghai. Lance Stroll was struck by a suspected battery issue on lap 10, while Alonso threw in the towel after 32 laps.

“I retired because the engine vibrations were actually different today – or rather, excessive – and starting around lap 20 or so, I began to lose all feeling in my hands and feet,” Alonso told DAZN.

The Aston driver, who propped up the field behind the Cadillacs prior to his retirement after being overtaken by both of them, added: “Continuing until the end of the race while losing feeling in my hands and feet didn’t make much sense.”

Speaking in the written media pen later on, Alonso made it clear that he ‘probably couldn’t have finished the race anyway’ – though he didn’t specify whether that was referring to a potential battery failure or the aforementioned physical struggles.

“[The vibrating] was worse today than any other session in the weekend,” he lamented.

“We were one lap behind, we were last. It was probably no point to keep on going.”

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing (Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images)

From Honda’s point of view, there were some positives from the weekend. “We have improved the vibrations on the systems side, but it’s still an issue for driver comfort,” Honda’s trackside general manager and chief engineer Shintaro Orihara said.

But Alonso clarified “the engine was exactly the same as in Australia”; the veteran pointed to artificial gains that may be linked to the power output from the combustion engine being reduced, though he also insisted Honda needed to be given more time to fix the issue.

“Some of the steps we did were achieved artificially,” he said. “I mean, just lowering the RPM of the engine and things like that, so everything vibrates less. But in the race, obviously, you still need to go high in some of the RPM when you make an overtake move, or when you have to recharge or something like that. Over time, it's more difficult. It's more demanding.”

At least Alonso shone with a lightning getaway on lap one – an area he has excelled in throughout his career – jumping from 15th (which accounts for three cars who failed to start ahead of him; he otherwise occupied the 18th grid spot) to 10th.

But, five laps later, he was back in 15th.

“Yeah, the starts are fun,” the Spaniard commented. “Same as in Australia, the car seems to start really well. On lap one it's true that we all have the same level of battery, which is full. Then we enter this battery world championship, and in that we are not as good as the others.”