Aston Martin facing China crisis after latest Honda admission

Honda has confirmed it will not have its "countermeasures" in place to cure the vibrations from its power until the Japanese Grand Prix at the earliest, leaving Aston Martin facing the prospect of another woeful race in China this weekend.

Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey laid bare the problems with the PU ahead of the season-opening Australian GP, stating they were not only compromising the chassis and reliability of the car, but also transferring through the steering wheel, into the fingers of drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, who were at risk of permanent nerve damage.

Across the weekend at Melbourne's Albert Park, Aston Martin struggled, with Stroll unable to even take part in qualifying due to the PU problems.

During the race, Alonso retired after 21 laps and Stroll after 43. Both were brought in earlier for pit stops when it appeared they had retired, only for the team to make lengthy adjustments to their cars before sending them out again two laps later.

For this weekend's Chinese GP at the Shanghai International Circuit, the team and its drivers will face similar issues, compounded by the fact that it is a sprint weekend, with only one practice session of preparation.

Honda Racing Corporation president Koji Watanabe, who was in attendance in Melbourne, is hoping the matter will be resolved before his company's home race in Japan on March 27-29.

"At this point, we haven't decided where we'll go, but first we want to thoroughly implement vibration countermeasures before Suzuka and get to the point where we can use the power unit without any problems," he told Autosport Japan.

"Sakura [the organisation's factory] will, of course, do its best to achieve this, but I think it will also be important to further deepen our collaboration with Silverstone [Aston Martin's headquarters].

"To that end, as the person in charge of management, I will work to strengthen the organisation."

Defining the 'deepening of the collaboration', Watanabe said: "I think we have basically strengthened our headcount sufficiently.

"Now we need to think about which areas we need to strengthen, what authority we need to have, and how we can work together with Aston Martin. I would like to discuss this with [Ikuo Takeishi, senior managing director of Honda Racing and general manager of the Automobile Racing Division] based on this race."

Watanabe is adamant that the current relationship between Aston Martin and Honda "can't stay the same".

He added: "We have to speed up [development], and that doesn't just mean increasing the power of the PU. It's about how we develop and accelerate it as one with the car. We want to work together as one team."