MOTOR RACING: Alonso 'couldn’t feel hands or feet' as Aston Martin retires in China

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso retired from Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix complaining that he could not feel his hands and feet due to the excessive vibration of his Honda-powered car.

The two-times world champion had pinned high hopes on the 2026 engine and chassis reset - the biggest regulatory overhaul in decades - and on design guru Adrian Newey’s first car for the British team, but the outfit struggled at the back of the field.

"On lap 20 to 35, I was struggling a bit to feel my hands and my feet," the Spaniard told reporters. "We were one lap behind, we were last, and there was probably no point to keep going."

Honda, whose engines powered Max Verstappen to four drivers’ world championships with Red Bull, are up against it to identify and fix the issue ahead of their home race in Japan in two weeks’ time.

Alonso told reporters that there were "artificial" fixes, but that the engine needed more time on the dyno to determine how to run it in a way that would make racing more bearable.

"There's lowering the RPM (revs per minute) of the engine and things like that, so that the thing vibrates less, but in the race obviously you still need to go high in the RPM when you make an overtake or you need to recharge," Alonso said.

"We need to give Honda more time to understand the vibrations and where they come from," he added.

Teammate Lance Stroll, who also retired from the race, was more dismissive.

"Unless they can find some magic in the next 10 days, pray. Pray for me," the Canadian driver said when asked whether he thought Honda could fix the issue ahead of the next race.

-Reporting by Joe Cash, editing by Pritha Sarkar/Reuters