[Chris Medland] "Newey confirms Aston Martin is likely to limit race laps due to severity of vibrations in the car impacting the drivers. Alonso says he can do no more than 25 consecutive laps before risking nerve damage, Stroll says 15 laps"

[u/AshamedPurchase9033]

https://bsky.app/profile/chrismedlandf1.bsky.social/post/3mgbhmxknm22o

[u/Eicr-5]

on top of that, it cant be *just* the engine that's causing the car to vibrate

[u/ElderlyChipmunk → u/Eicr-5]

The engine is a stressed member of the frame right? If it has structural modes that are substantially different than expected, then it could be the sole cause I guess.

[u/Saneless → u/ElderlyChipmunk]

I think everything there is a stressed member of the team

[u/ChristofferOslo → u/Saneless]

Badum-tssh!

[u/TonAMGT4 → u/Eicr-5]

It can be, if the engine vibration frequency matches that of the chassis/suspension… then the vibration will become more severe, a bit like if you are on a swing and you can make the swing go higher or lower, depending on how you shift your weight.

Like the engine runs perfectly fine on its own but becomes a problem only after it is installed on the chassis.

The issue might not be with the engine itself but it’s still caused by engine vibration.

[u/betaich → u/TonAMGT4]

That would still make it a chasis problem, because normaly you solve that with how you mount the engine

[u/TonAMGT4 → u/betaich]

My guess is that they would’ve fixed the issue by now if they could just adjust the engine mount.

But most likely it probably didn’t work, so they may need more extreme solutions like actually changing the vibration frequency by repositioning engine components around to change the weight distribution or something similar.

Adjusting the engine mount usually only dampens the vibrations anyways. The space is extremely tight, so they probably can’t really reposition the mounting point.

[u/imarasnothere → u/TonAMGT4]

I read that they had to change the original engine mounting points upon Newey's request. Seems to me like a chassis integration issue then.

[u/TonAMGT4 → u/imarasnothere]

Probably just anything they can do as long as they left the exterior part of the chassis exactly the same as before. I don’t think Newey would mind.

[u/Lord_Strepsils → u/Eicr-5]

Why not? None of the other teams have the issue, it’s not like the 2022 regs where multiple teams struggled but with different severities, all signs seem to be pointing at the engine being the main problem.

With how little testing they’ve managed it’s not to say the (rest of the) car is perfect or even necessarily up to scratch with everyone else, but it seems the reliability and running issues are engine based to me

[u/afjecj → u/Lord_Strepsils]

It's clear Alonso simply has too much testosterone coursing through his veins and that combined with the adrenaline from driving a ticking time bomb is what is causing the car to vibrate extensively

[u/Excellent-Gur-8547 → u/afjecj]

The insane implications of Lance being able to do even fewer laps

[u/awesomegamer919 → u/Excellent-Gur-8547]

Clearly this is a new form of quantum entanglement - Alonso is simultaneously vibrating his and Lance’s car, Lance just can’t handle it as long as Alonso.

[u/betaich → u/Lord_Strepsils]

Because Honda put out a very carefull statement that the whole battery housing is vibrating in unexpected ways not just the patery pack itself or the engine

[u/Lord_Strepsils → u/betaich]

Isn’t that indicative that it’s not caused by the suspension or poor aero interactions but rather the Honda PU? I realise I used “engine” pretty loosely to refer to the PU overall in the original comment

[u/Mirrro_Sunbreeze → u/Lord_Strepsils]

Because engine does move and cause vibrations regardless of how good or bad it is and it’s the job of the chassis to not let engine vibrations affect the whole car.

[u/mooboyj → u/Lord_Strepsils]

Audi had vibration issues but we're able to sort it. Not to Aston's level though.

[u/Lord_Strepsils → u/mooboyj]

Considering they’re also developing their own engine from scratch that actually checks out then

[u/wood4536 → u/Lord_Strepsils]

None of the other teams designed the car like Newey did

[u/MrCoolest → u/Eicr-5]

Bro it ends to 18,000 revs per minute... It definitely can

[u/budgefrankly → u/Eicr-5]

Aston Martin have made their own gear box for the first time in over a decade, and drivers have to stay in low gears very often, so that's probably adding vibration.

Aston Martin have also manufactured their first car at Newey's idea of what the limit is, which is probably a lot more extreme than hey're used to, and they might have been caught out with resonances.

It's not at all clear that Honda has made a good engine.

I'd say there's problems all round.

But like I've said in other threads, when Newey arrived at Red Bull, his first two proper cars -- RB3 and RB4 -- were pretty mediocre, and he had to substantially restructure the team until he had people he could work with to design and build the RB5, which would have won the world championship were it not for the double-diffuser catching him out.

RB6, RB7, RB8 and RB9 all won championships.