Alonso criticizes Aston Martin: “Battery Championship” in F1

Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin driver, has stated that, although the team shows a good performance in the first laps of the races, it is affected by what he calls the “world battery championship”. Aston Martin has had a complicated start to the Formula 1 season due to reliability issues with its new Honda power unit, which manifested themselves from the pre-season tests. The vibrations from the Honda engine damaged multiple batteries during the tests, forcing Alonso to retire from the Chinese Grand Prix after losing feeling in his hands and feet. Despite the challenges, Alonso has highlighted the car’s good starts, moving up from 17th to 10th in Australia and from 18th to 10th in China. However, the problems with the Honda power unit have prevented him from maintaining those positions, resulting in his retirement in both races.

Yes, the starts are fun. Like in Australia, the car seems to start very well. On the first lap it’s true that we all have the same battery level, which is full. Then we enter this world battery championship and in that we are not as good as the others.

Fernando Alonso

The first two races have been revealing for Aston Martin, but Alonso is confident that Honda can improve its power unit before the race in Japan on March 29. The team needs more time to analyze the vibrations and their origin, with the aim of solving the battery isolation problems. Although Honda has implemented countermeasures to protect the battery from vibrations, the team’s priority remains solving the root cause of the problem. Mike Krack, track engineering chief, highlighted the progress made since the preseason, but acknowledged the challenges the team still faces. Krack highlighted that, although solutions have been found to mitigate the problems, especially in the battery, there is still work to be done in terms of performance. The team expects to make further improvements in the coming days.