As what’s that overused cliché about the perfect
Storm?
Thursday’s press conference preceding the
Australian Grand Prix saw Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey dropping the
“Bombshell” over both His drivers fearing permanent nerve damage to their
hands/fingers due to the unrelenting vibrations the Honda Power Units (PU) were
experiencing.
As Newey claimed star driver Fernando Alonso
thought 25 consecutive laps was His
limit, with Lance Stroll saying He could only do 15 laps.
As Alonso said when driving this year’s AMR26
chassis, His legs and hands feel numb, which obviously isn’t a normal sensation
drivers are accustomed to!
Although Alonso contradicted Newey by saying He
could race for three hours is necessary. While Lance Stroll described the
vibration like sitting in an Electric Chair…
What I fail to comprehend is how could Honda
worked itself into the position a second time in Formula 1? Since I think we
all remember Alonso’s famous quote about the previous Honda PU being slower
than a GP2 car! And making “friends” with Honda eternally…
Although some claim this is political theatre,
certainly Newey publicly stating He hadn’t had time to discuss this with Honda Racing
Corporation’s (HRC) boss Koji Watanabe cannot go over well with the Japanese
hierarchy, Righto?
Then on Friday, Alonso failed to run at all if
the first practice, with Lance Stroll only doing three laps. With Newey
admitting they were short on battery units.
As two of the units were swiftly out of
commission, leaving just the two units in the cars for the remainder of the
weekend. Although one unit was repaired, leaving them with a single back-up
unit for the Chinese Grand Prix. With teams limited to four battery “packs” for
a season, before presumably incurring grid penalties. In the name of cost
control, Cough-cough!
Yet its a sad state of affairs, when Aston’s Mike
Krack, the former Team Principal pronounces Frederico Suave (Alonso) finishing
the team’s first Grand Prix at Suzuka P18 as a major accomplishment, Huh?
Whilst Stroll retired with a suspected water
pressure issue for the Internal Combustion Engine. (ICE) Which I cannot help
but wonder if that was caused by more harmonic vibrations?
According to Adrian Newey, it came as quite a
surprise to Him, major domo Lawerence Stroll and Andy Cowell Some four months
prior to Melbourne when visiting Japan. That Honda had lost a lot of their
experienced staff after announcing the withdrawal from Formula 1 in 2021.
Before making a “U-turn” during 2022, being behind their F1 rivals ever since…
It seemed quite odd that Newey was elevated to
the Team Principal role at the time, which I just Arse-sumed was the team firmly
telling Newey’s former boss Chris Horner, the ex-Pied Piper of Red Bull that He
wasn’t welcomed at Aston!
But it just didn’t make any sense to me, since
Newey was signed on a $25 million per year contract to sprinkle His design
“Genius” upon Aston Martin’s chassis. In conjunction with Honda Werks’ engines,
Err Power Units and Presto Chango, instant “World Beaters”, Tuh-duh!
Yet for Mwah, Aston Martin has some sort of systemic
problem at its core. And team owner Lawrence stroll’s idea of simply throwing
money around will solve everything doesn’t seem to be working.
Not sure how many millions have been spent upon
the new state-of-art factory premises, err F1 campus at Silverstone. Or the top
flight wind tunnel coming online, et al.
It just seems that the constant turnover of
staffing speaks volumes.
As Mike Krack replaced outgoing Team Principal
Otmar Szafnauer, who left Aston Martin at the end of 2021. Being part of the
“Old Guard”, i.e.; Force India, thru Stroll’s takeover as Racing Point and then
becoming today’s Aston Martin F1 Team.
Krack became Chief Trackside Officer at the
beginning of last year, when then Group CEO Andy Cowell took over His position.
Before Newey’s elevation to Team Principal; Cowell was announced as the new
Chief Strategy Officer last November, to coordinate the integration of the
Honda PU into the Aston Martin AMR-26 chassis.
Which makes sense now, after that November
meeting in Japan.
As Cowell had originally replaced Martin
Whitmarsh when joining Aston Martin from Mercedes, with scuttlebutt suggesting
Cowell will leave Aston shortly. And so it goes…
Since we’re all eagerly awaiting the
introduction of Jonathan Wheatley, former Sauber/Audi Team Principal, becoming Aston
Martin’s newest Team Principal. Probably after the summer break while on
Gardening leave currently.
Meanwhile, Simulator Jockey Daniel Juncadella
claims He didn’t see any of Honda’s problems coming during His simulator work,
while I still don’t quite grasp the need, or what Pedro de la Rosa’s role as
Global F1 Ambassador is?
Aston
Martin Global F1 Ambassador Pedro de la Rosa talks racing and resilience
Thus, this ever revolving door makes it
reasonable that El Supremo Engineer Gianpiero Lambiase has just been confirmed
going to McLaren when His current Red Bull contract expires at the end of 2027,
albeit does Red Bull really want Him sticking round after the end of this
season?
As the exodus of “Rats” is now in high gear at
Milton Keynes, with Lambiase, Max Verstappen’s championship winning engineer
having had offers from McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams. I’d say He chose to
work at the most stable, competitive Formula 1 outfit on the grid, behind Herr
Wolff’s mighty Silver arrows, Ja volt!
Although I must say I marvel over how Uber’
diplomatic Alonso’s been this go-around, perhaps wishing to continue on past
His contract expiring at season’s end. Yet the soon to be 45 year old driver
surely is nearing the end of His time in Formula 1, Ci?
And Lance Stroll will never deliver anything
substantial in F1. Since would He still be in F1 without His billionaire
father?
Meaning even when Aston Martin and Honda get
the kinks worked out. With one rival F1 boss saying they weren’t falling for
giving Honda concessions a second time after Red Bull’s latest F1 dynasty…
It seems that Aston Martin will still have a
major problem without new, capable winning drivers in their cockpits…
Whilst lastly, I’ll
leave you with the entire trilogy of my epic 75 Years of Honda Racing No
Fenders story below. Since I’d like to believe that Honda will once again soar
to the top in F1.
