Why Honda engine is not the only issue with Aston Martin - F1 Q&A
Fernando Alonso (right) finished 18th in the Japanese Grand Prix, ahead of Cadillac's Valtteri Bottas and Williams' Alex Albon. Lance Stroll failed to finish the race Formula 1 is taking a break from racing during April because of the cancellations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix but there is still plenty to talk about. BBC F1 correspondent Andrew Benson has been answering your latest questions...
Andrew mentioned in his Japanese GP race report that half of Aston Martin's time deficit is down to the chassis and therefore not just the Honda engine. Please could he elaborate on exactly what he has learned because this has not been widely reported and I think deserves to be heard, as it does not seem fair to burden all of the blame on to Honda - Kevin The race report from Suzuka actually mentioned that more than half Aston Martin's deficit to the front was caused by the chassis. That information came from a very senior and knowledgeable figure over the course of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.
It also tallies with what other teams are seeing on the GPS data to which all have access, in terms of the cars' speed on different parts of the track. The exact split in terms of the losses that can be attributed to car and engine at Aston Martin-Honda is not known, and it's probably not possible to know, as of course the behaviour of the engine can also have an impact on the cornering performance of the car. It's worth adding that, while it's true that much of the public focus has been on the Honda engine, and especially the severe vibrations that have been causing reliability problems, team principal Adrian Newey has been clear that the car is also lacking.
It's also the case that it's not clear where the vibrations are coming from - are they intrinsic to the engine, or is there something about the way the engine is mounted to the chassis that exacerbates them? In Australia, Newey said that on the chassis side "we're maybe the fifth best team, so sort of potential Q3 qualifiers on the chassis side, but with the potential to be up front at some point in the season". On average over the four qualifying sessions of the first three races, including for the sprint in China, the Aston Martin is 3.
6 seconds off the pace. The fifth fastest team on average are Alpine, at 1. 268secs off the pace, followed by Haas at 1.