Fernando Alonso will skip media day for the Japanese Grand Prix on Thursday amid the birth of his first child.
The two-time F1 champion and his partner Melissa Jimenez revealed last year that they were due to become parents with it happening some time around this weekend’s race.
It means he will now arrive at Suzuka on Friday instead of Thursday, though he is also giving his FP1 seat to Aston reserve Jak Crawford as part of the mandatory rookie outings across the season.
An Aston Martin statement read: “Fernando is arriving slightly later this weekend for personal family reasons and won’t be attending media day at the Japanese Grand Prix. All is well and he will be at the track in time for Friday.”
So his first session will be second practice alongside team-mate Lance Stroll, and comes as both drivers continue suffering through a disastrous start to the 2026 campaign due to the troublesome AMR26.
Its Honda power unit has endured numerous battery failures thanks to excessive engine vibrations, leading to limited running for the Silverstone outfit in tests and races so far this year.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
The squad is bottom of the championship without a point and although the vibrations were less last time out in China, Aston’s fortunes are not expected to be much better this weekend.
“In China, we made some progress in terms of battery reliability thanks to a reduction in the vibration affecting the systems, but we must find more solutions to establish the cause of the vibrations affecting the drivers,” said Honda’s trackside general manager Shintaro Orihara.
“We have also focused our efforts in the gap between China and Japan to continue to improve our reliability, but still our performance is not where we want it to be, especially regarding energy management.
“Suzuka is a tough track for this, so we have been using learnings from Australia and China to prepare better for the Japanese Grand Prix.”
But the problems don’t lay on just the engine side either, as the management structure is constantly changing and after China, Motorsport revealed that Adrian Newey was set to step down as team principal.
It came just three months after the legendary car designer assumed the role and he is expected to be replaced by Jonathan Wheatley, who last week announced his departure from Audi.
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