Ex-Formula 1 driver David Coulthard does not believe that the vibrations at Aston Martin are really that bad for the drivers – normally a driver does not give up
Aston Martin has not yet seen the chequered flag in any race over the full distance in the 2026 Formula 1 season. Although Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll finished the sprint race in China over 19 laps, they failed to do so in the main race and also at the season opener in Australia.
At the last Grand Prix in Shanghai, Alonso retired after 32 of the 56 laps with the official reason that the vibrations in the car were too strong. “From lap 20 onwards, I started to lose all feeling in my hands and feet,” he explained.
Expert and ex-Formula 1 driver David Coulthard only partially buys Aston Martin’s reasoning, however. In the Up To Speed podcast, the 2001 world championship runner-up explains that he himself experienced vibrations in the car during his career, for example due to a flat tire.
“I never gave up at a Grand Prix, because you want the points,” emphasizes Coulthard. He doesn’t know exactly “what he feels in the car”, he says about Alonso. But he has watched video footage from the onboard perspective, says the Scot.
And apparently the vibrations don’t affect him so much that you have to stop the car because of them. He compares the situation to construction workers who “work with jackhammers every day”. He emphasizes: “You never hear them say: ‘I’m not working today because my hands hurt from working with the jackhammer’.”
Coulthard: A driver would never give up voluntarily
It is therefore possible that Aston Martin’s official reason is “more a matter of convenience”, he can imagine and explains: “I suspect that the vibrations are more of a problem for reliability than for the driver.”
But by citing physical discomfort as the reason for giving up, you take the focus off your own car and can instead “keep Honda in the spotlight”, says Coulthard, who emphasizes that a Formula 1 driver would never actually give up voluntarily.
“The way I see it, a driver would learn to sing the national anthem backwards while juggling chainsaws if it meant he could gain even a tenth of a second,” emphasized the 13-time Grand Prix winner.
In fact, Mike Krack from Aston Martin even admitted after the China race that Alonso could theoretically have finished the race. “Fernando also said that it would have been possible to continue if we had been in contention for the win,” said Krack.
“However, we were not in a particularly strong position at that point. That’s why the decision was ultimately relatively easy to make,” he said. So if Alonso had had the chance to score points, he would probably have tried to finish the race.
