F1 Australian Grand Prix: Lance Stroll issues health update after 'nerve damage' risk

Lance Stroll looks crestfallen at the back of the Aston Martin garage — Photo: © IMAGO

Australian Grand Prix

F1 star Lance Stroll issues health update after 'nerve damage' risk at Australian Grand Prix

The Aston Martin star narrowly avoided a DNF in Melbourne on Sunday

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Sunday 8 March 2026 11:53 Updated: 13:39

Aston Martin F1 driver Lance Stroll has provided an update over his physical wellbeing in Melbourne having failed to complete the full 58 laps of this weekend's Australian Grand Prix.

In the lead up to the first race of the 2026 championship, there had been plenty of chatter around how unpredictable the competitive order would be given that a comprehensive overhaul of chassis and power unit regulations had taken place.

But after Adrian Newey's F1 squad turned up late to January's Barcelona shakedown and suffered persistent issues with their new Honda power unit during Bahrain pre-season testing, they managed to cement themselves as the team who were struggling most.

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Things then went from bad to worse as Newey faced the media in his new role as Aston Martin team principal, revealing that both Stroll and his team-mate Fernando Alonso had shared fears they might suffer permanent nerve damage if they had to perform too many consecutive laps on Sunday.

As the scheduled programme progressed at Albert Park Circuit, it became clear that Aston Martin's power unit troubles were preventing them from racing at all, with both drivers sitting out of sessions and Stroll unable to take to the track at all on Saturday.

According to Newey, the Canadian driver had told him that he would only be able to manage 15 laps in the AMR26 due to the pain that the vibrations from the Honda PU were causing him.

So, having crossed the line as the only Aston Martin driver out on track, did Stroll's health take a bit of a hit? Thankfully not.

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Stroll: Honda vibrations still an issue

To say that Aston Martin 'raced' in Sunday's Australian GP would be inaccurate, and to say that Stroll 'completed' it just wouldn't be true.

Throughout the opening race of the season, both Stroll and Alonso were called in to the pits by Aston Martin, who made the decision to turn the grand prix into their own testing programme.

Their first DNF appeared to come with 43 laps left when Alonso was announced as having retired from the grand prix after driving very slowly around Albert Park Circuit 15 times. But the Spaniard's name popped back up on the timing charts later on after unretiring himself in order to gather as much data for his struggling team as possible.

Stroll then did the same thing having followed Alonso into the pit lane after the Spaniard retired on lap 36, this time for good.

The Canadian driver headed back out on track with less than 10 laps to go, having rejoined the race 12 laps behind the rest of the pack.

He clung on until the chequered flag and managed to cross the line, albeit 15 laps down and last out of the drivers who remained.

After the first race of the campaign had concluded, Sky F1’s Rachel Brookes asked Stroll whether he would describe the Australian GP as 'a good afternoon' considering how dire Aston Martin's chances of getting any laps in had looked just one day prior.

The 27-year-old replied: "No it hasn't been a good afternoon, I mean we finished like 15 laps down, problems all weekend and even today in the race so not good but at least we got to do some laps.

When questioned about the vibrations, Stroll then provided an update on the Honda PU issue whilst also confirming that he had not suffered an injuries.

"Yeah we still have problems with the vibrations," he said, before adding: "I'm fine physically, I can drive the car, it's just not good for the engine."

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here she realised her background in journalism and love of motorsport could be combined, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work more closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan which she hopes to build on.

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Aston Martin Adrian Newey 2026 regulations Lance Stroll Honda