Honda, Aston Martin on track to complete full race distance following Australian GP

After a disastrous preseason for Aston Martin and their power unit partners Honda, Adrian Newey revealed upon arrival in Melbourne that extreme vibrations meant the team could not do many laps at the same time since that would damage the batteries, not to mention potential nerve damage to drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll due to the extreme vibrations transmitted through the steering column.

As such, the team's on-track appearances were scarce, and while Alonso took part in qualifying and was 17th fastest, Stroll could not due to car issues.

During the race, both drivers managed well over half the Grand Prix distance while visiting the pits for a few laps each so their team could check the car before sending them out again. Ultimately both AMR26s were retired before the race ended.

But Honda's Orihara insisted there was a silver lining and said: "In Melbourne, we made another step in the right direction.

"We were able to see that our power unit countermeasures worked in race conditions when we ran in the grand prix without reliability issues. This improvement has been significant if you look at where we were in Bahrain compared to where we are now.

"This event was extremely important for us to check battery reliability," he pointed out. "Since the Bahrain tests, Aston Martin Aramco and Honda have worked together very closely to find a solution to the battery vibration issues. As one team, we have been working around the clock to find and implement these countermeasures.

"We can see from our data that the battery vibrations have continued to decrease, and we are now confident we are on track to complete a full race distance.

"In this aspect, we are on the right trajectory, and we need to keep up this momentum. Every lap we can complete is vital for our PU data gathering, so the hard work and maximum effort will only continue as we move forward.

"Next week in China, we are now confident to build up more mileage on the battery. We will focus on putting in the laps and gathering data to improve our performance and optimize our energy management," the Honda engineer concluded.