Alonso to miss media day after birth of first child

The team added: "All is well and he will be at the track in time for Friday. " Has Aston Martin's Newey team principal project failed? F1 Q&A Alonso, who is in the final year of his contract with Aston Martin and has not said whether he wants to stay in F1 beyond 2026, is not due to take part in Friday's first practice session.

The team's reserve driver Jak Crawford will be driving the car in one of the team's mandated rookie sessions this year. Alonso has insisted he has faith in Honda's ability to put things right but acknowledged that he does not know how long that will take. It is the second time he has been on the receiving end of Honda being unprepared in a new relationship in F1, after a difficult three years with McLaren in 2015-17.

Aston Martin have had a troubled start to the season as a result of major reliability and performance issues with their Honda engine, while the car is also behind on development after its design was started late. They are last in the world championship after two races, the worst possible start to their new factory partnership with Honda, which won four drivers' titles and two constructors' titles with Red Bull from 2021-24. Alonso has retired from both events in Australia and China and team-mate Lance Stroll retired in China and finished last, 15 laps behind the winner, in Melbourne.

Honda's first-order issue is a severe vibration from the engine that has been leading to failures in the battery. Its engineers have been working to isolate the battery, a critical part of the hybrid system, from the vibrations but these have still been causing problems for the rest of the car - Alonso retired in China because holding the steering wheel was proving too painful. That came after team principal Adrian Newey said at the first race of the season that the vibrations were so bad they were risking permanent nerve damage for the drivers within 25 laps of running.