F1 News: Aston Martin's Fixes Won't Solve Engine Power Deficit

Fernando Alonso has put his foot down, the Asturian driver, who is racing the Canadian Grand Prix this weekend, warned that the upgrades Aston Martin has introduced on the AMR26 will not mean a qualitative leap: "I don't think the performance is going to change" he declared on the eve of the race in Montreal.

The underlying problem is the magnitude of the deficit: "We need to improve the drivability, and have downshifts, upshifts and engine braking a bit smoother, all these things that can give you a bit more confidence to attack the corners, but in that confidence, there might be half a tenth. It's not the two or three seconds we are missing, so I don't think it's going to change performance much" he stated.

The British team has focused its efforts on solving the reliability problems that weighed down the first races, the vibrations in the chassis, the harsh gear shifts and the engine braking have been the focus of attention: "In Miami, we took a good step in battery reliability, and the battery problem has already disappeared. Now we are focusing on improving energy management, also drivability" explained Shintaro Orihara, Honda's chief engineer.

But the complexity is enormous, Aston Martin builds its own gearbox internally for the first time since the end of the 2000s, and drivability is closely interrelated with engine performance, given the integration between these elements and the actions of the electric motor, which recovers and deploys energy from the battery.

"The whole drivability thing, including upshifts or downshifts, is a more complicated step than it used to be, for several reasons. The regulations have changed quite a bit, we are recovering much more energy and we are also new to this, we must not forget that. Many of the problems we had, which prevented us from running, are now solved. And then you see new issues arise" he added.

Much of the complications come from the aggressive packaging of the rear of the AMR26, that design choice, made by Adrian Newey after joining Aston Martin last season, was intended to benefit aerodynamic performance. Facilitating this required unusual solutions, such as the "double deck" battery format and a different location for the electric motor, so far, the team has not been able to materialize the theoretical benefits due to the side effects on reliability.

To find the two or three seconds they are missing, Aston Martin will need more than transmission finesse. The Honda engine is below the benchmark Mercedes unit in both horsepower and electrical deployment, the ADUO program, which allows upgrades for struggling manufacturers, could be the only hope, the results of the first evaluation will be known after Canada.

In the meantime, Alonso prepares for another complicated weekend: "We need to change the reliability, because we had some problems that sometimes prevented us from running properly in practice" he concluded.