A former member of Oscar Piastri’s inner circle has been called up to help his rival and Formula 1 title favourite George Russell ahead of Sunday’s race because of travel issues caused by the war in the Middle East, while ongoing mechanical problems threatened to derail Aston Martin’s Australian Grand Prix.
On a dramatic Friday at Albert Park, Piastri completed a sizzling second practice session to clock the fastest lap for the day, and Aston Martin design guru Adrian Newey revealed his team arrived at the Australian Grand Prix with just two usable batteries.
Oscar Piastri clocked the fastest lap in the second practice session on Friday.Credit: Eddie Jim
Aston Martin was in damage control after engineers worked through the night to solve a serious vibration problem affecting the Honda power unit.
“We are short on batteries,” Newey said. “We’ve only got two batteries left — the two that are in the car. If we lose one of those then it’s obviously a big problem.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped the first session ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton as teams began the process of understanding the new cars around the fast and unforgiving Albert Park circuit.
Piastri banked valuable laps in the opening session despite a gearbox issue that limited running for his McLaren teammate Lando Norris.
But Piastri’s flying lap of 1:19.729 in P2 put him 0.214 seconds ahead of Kimi Antonelli, while Russell was third.
Piastri’s former performance trainer Kim Keedle, an Australian who was in the paddock on Friday, was called up to work with Mercedes rival Russell this weekend because his own trainer was stuck overseas amid travel disruption caused by conflict in the Middle East.
Keedle became Piastri’s performance manager and physiotherapist ahead of his title-winning F2 season in 2021.
Mercedes have emerged as one of the season’s favourites after a positive test period in Bahrain, and will be hoping to qualify on the front row on Sunday.
They completed a healthy number of laps during the opening session, giving the team valuable data for the remainder of the weekend.
Cardboard cutouts at Albert Park before the actual drivers hit the track. Credit: Eddie Jim
“It was a difficult first run,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said. “When you start under new regulations it’s not unusual. There are some interesting challenges on the chassis side, but they’re all surmountable.”
For Aston Martin, however, the focus is simply keeping the cars on the track.
Both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were affected by the vibration issue during practice — a problem Newey admitted is at the heart of the team’s early-season concerns.
“We’re having continuing problems with the battery,” Newey said.
Fernando Alonso has struggled with vibrations in the new car. Credit: AP
“But the much more underlying problem is vibration issues that we just continue to struggle with.”
The team trialled a different technical solution on Stroll’s car as engineers scrambled to determine whether it might reduce the vibrations.
“There’s some analysis going on as we speak as to whether that’s helped or not,” Newey said.
Depending on the outcome, Aston Martin will decide what configuration to run in the remaining practice sessions before qualifying.
But the lack of track time has created a deeper problem for the team: it has barely begun to understand the behaviour of its new car.
“Our information on the car itself is very limited because we’ve done so little running,” Newey said.
Running low fuel — the typical preparation for qualifying simulations — actually worsens the battery issue, forcing the team to limit the kinds of laps it can safely complete.
“Running it low fuel actually exacerbates the battery problem,” Newey explained.
Fans at Albert Park on Friday.Credit: Joe Armao
The result is a frustrating cycle: without running, the team gathers little data about the car, but a more aggressive approach risks damaging the already limited supply of energy storage systems.
Newey, one of the most decorated designers in Formula 1 history, has felt unusually helpless.
“It’s one where I feel a bit powerless,” he said.
“We’ve clearly got a very significant power unit problem. And our lack of running then means we’re not finding out about the car either. It becomes a self-feeding problem.”
Newey stressed the issue is not simply an engine problem belonging to Aston Martin’s power unit partner Honda but something the entire team must solve together.
“We can say it’s their problem, but it’s our problem as well,” he said.
“The car is a combination of chassis and power unit.”
The opening session marked another milestone for Cadillac, with team principal Graeme Lowdon overseeing the team running two cars during an official grand prix weekend for the first time.
“It was hectic,” Lowdon said. “It’s the first time we’ve ever owned two cars running in a Formula 1 session.”
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