Aston Martin’s severe vibration issues: “It’s like being electrocuted in your chair”

Fernando Alonso may be the calm presence on one side of the Aston Martin garage, but teammate Lance Stroll isn’t shy about describing just how brutal the car felt during preseason testing in Bahrain. His comparison was blunt—and unforgettable: “I don’t know what you’d compare it to… maybe like getting electrocuted in an electric chair or something. It’s not far from that. The vibration is extremely uncomfortable, and it’s bad for the engine—but also for the human sitting in the car.”

According to the team, the extreme vibrations coming from the power unit aren’t just a performance issue—they’re a physical threat. Adrian Newey confirmed Thursday in Melbourne that the shaking can actually cause physical damage to drivers.

“You can injure the nerves in your hand,” Newey explained, adding that Honda has brought updates for the weekend in hopes of easing the problem.

Stroll isn’t convinced the fix will be enough.

“It’s not good. We’re trying to solve it and we have some ideas for this week. We’ll see in practice if it’s better than Bahrain,” he said.But he didn’t sugarcoat the situation: “If the problems from Bahrain are still there, it’ll be hard to do more than 10 or 15 laps. If they’ve been solved, we can go much further in the race.”

Alonso: “After 25 minutes, your body goes numb”

Alonso spoke earlier and echoed the concerns: “Everything vibrates for us—but not just for us. The car suffers, and that’s why we’ve had reliability issues. The vibrations coming from the engine are damaging components, and the drivers feel it. After 25 minutes, your body starts to go numb.”

He noted that Aston Martin has already implemented some solutions since Bahrain, but the long‑term effects remain unknown.

“It’s not painful or hard to control the car. The adrenaline of driving is stronger than any pain. If we were fighting for a win, we could drive three hours like this. But it’s not normal, and we don’t know what happens if you drive like this for months. We need to fix it.”

Newey’s Warning: “We’ll be very limited in laps”

Newey offered the clearest picture of the situation early Thursday morning in Melbourne:

“Fernando feels he can’t do more than 25 consecutive laps without risking permanent nerve damage in his hand. Lance thinks he can’t do more than 15. So we have to be honest. We haven’t been able to discuss this earlier with Koji (Watanabe, president of HRC), but we’ll be very restricted in the number of laps until we can solve the root cause of these vibrations.”

Get closer to the game! Whether you like your soccer of the European variety or that on this side of the pond, our AS USA app has it all. Dive into live coverage, expert insights, breaking news, exclusive videos, and more. Plus, stay updated on NFL, NBA and all other big sports stories as well as the latest in current affairs and entertainment. Download now for all-access coverage, right at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere.

And there’s more: check out our TikTok and Instagram reels for bite-sized visual takes on all the biggest soccer news and insights.