Think racing a Formula 1 car is difficult? Try doing it with an engine vibration so severe that it could possibly cause nerve damage in your hands.
That is the problem facing the Aston Martin Formula 1 team drivers, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso. Stroll, 27, can only do 15 circuits in a row before the pain becomes unbearable. The 44-year-old Alonso, on the other hand (pun intended), feels he cannot go more than 25 laps “before he will risk permanent nerve damage to his hands.”
According to team manager Adrian Newey, Aston Martin’s problems are so bad that they will restrict how many laps their drivers can race at the season-opening F1 Australian Grand Prix.
“That vibration into the chassis is causing a few reliability problems: mirrors falling off, tail lights falling off, all that sort of thing, which we are having to address,” RacingNews365 reports Newey told the media. “But the much more significant problem is that vibration is transmitted ultimately into the driver’s fingers.
Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll painted a grim picture
Stroll explained what it is like in the car when he was asked on F1 TV to describe the feeling. He was also asked to compare it to something a “normal” person might comprehend.
“I don’t know how you can compare it,” he said. “I guess just electrocute yourself on a chair or something like that, not far off. It’s just, it’s very uncomfortable vibrations. It’s bad for the engine, but also for the human inside the car. We need to get on top of it, but I think we will.”
“Definitely, it is something that is unusual,” The Athletic reports Alonso said in a media session. “It shouldn’t be there, and we don’t know the consequences either, if you keep driving like that for months. So, a solution has to be implemented.”
What will the lap limits be? And how long will they be in place?
Newey stated that the lap limits will be in place until Honda and the team can resolve the issue. He did not specify, however, exactly how long the team will race on Sunday.
“We are going to have to be very heavily restricted on how many laps we do in the race until we get on top of the source of the vibration and improve the vibration at source,” he said.