Fernando Alonso will miss media day at the Japanese Grand Prix and arrive at Suzuka later in the weekend after traveling to be with his partner, Melissa Jimenez, for the birth of their first child, Aston Martin said. The team confirmed Alonso would delay his arrival until Friday and skip Thursday media commitments; BBC Sport reported that Melissa Jimenez has given birth, while other reports noted her due date fell during the Suzuka weekend, so accounts vary on whether the child was born before Alonso travelled.

To cover Alonso’s mandated rookie-session appearance, Aston Martin will run reserve driver Jak Crawford in FP1 at Suzuka, an outing team principal Mike Krack called “an important opportunity to gather data and driver feedback.” The team said the change was a personal scheduling matter rather than a fitness issue, that Alonso would be on track in time for Friday running and FP2 alongside Lance Stroll, and that he remains scheduled to compete in the race.

The announcement comes amid a difficult start to 2026 for Aston Martin. The Honda-powered AMR26 has suffered battery failures tied to excessive engine vibrations, and Alonso and team-mate Lance Stroll retired in China and Australia, leaving the team bottom of the championship after two races. Honda said it has made some reliability progress but still lacks power and energy deployment ahead of Suzuka, and outlets warned the unresolved vibration issues add technical uncertainty at the fast, technically demanding Suzuka circuit.

Ferrari has focused its SF-26 development on improving energy recovery and deployment, rebalancing aerodynamics — most notably the experimental rotating “Macarena” rear wing — and cutting weight. The team has formally asked the FIA to lift the ban on testing current cars during the April break; the request pits Ferrari against rivals and the governing body and would affect how teams can develop cars during enforced calendar gaps. Ferrari believes Suzuka’s characteristics could better suit the SF-26’s energy traits and produce a strong result before the month-long midseason pause prompted by the canceled Bahrain and Jeddah races.

Engine and energy-recovery work is a priority at Maranello. Enrico Gualtieri’s group is developing the 067/6 power unit while engineers optimize how the SF-26 harvests and deploys electrical energy, targeting slow corners and transitions and trialing lower gears to keep revs higher and extract more charge. Ferrari says any turbo advantage has been negated by weak energy management and a traction deficit that costs time through corners. By contrast, Mercedes’s W17 runs a Brixworth-built V6 with stronger high-end power and a fuel-to-battery recharge approach — reports suggest a very high compression ratio (above 16:1) — that helps on long straights and in straight-line energy deployment.

Aerodynamic work centers on the Macarena device and an overall balance reset. Drivers reported instability when the Macarena closed under braking in Shanghai, so teams have adjusted opening/closing timing, front-flap settings and actuator layout. The wing delivers straight-line gains when open but adds weight and introduces balance trade-offs. Ferrari has also introduced front-wing updates and may reinstall a revised Halo windscreen fin as part of the package. The SF-26 remains several kilograms over its target mass; engineers are targeting roughly a 6–7 kg reduction. Suzuka’s newly resurfaced track and typically cooler, potentially wet conditions will be a key proving ground to assess whether the combined power-unit, aerodynamic and weight changes can close the gap to Mercedes before the midseason break.

Jolyon Palmer told the F1 Nation podcast that talks between Max Verstappen and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff “are going to happen” if Red Bull’s struggles continue and Mercedes remains the benchmark. Palmer framed this as conditional on on-track performance and timing, and pointed to last season’s tensions and earlier public rumours as context rather than announcing any confirmed move.

Supporters of that scenario point to Verstappen’s difficult start to the season: he has complained about the RB22 and suffered early reliability problems — reports say the car missed a battery at race starts in Australia and China and an ERS cooling failure forced his retirement in Shanghai — leaving him eighth in the standings on eight points. Mercedes’ strong early results, including wins in Australia and China and the China sprint, are taken by some as evidence the team may have the fastest package, and media reports also cite performance-related clauses in Verstappen’s Red Bull contract that are understood to potentially allow an early exit.

Wolff has publicly pushed back on immediate transfer talk, ruling out signing Verstappen for 2027 and calling recent reports “silly,” while also confirming he had long been interested in Verstappen and that he spoke with Verstappen’s manager in 2025 to probe a possible move under the incoming regulations. Verstappen remains contracted to Red Bull through 2028 after reportedly failing to meet the 2025 release-clause conditions; outlets say the clause was later relaxed to require a third-place finish, which increases the theoretical chance of a post-2026 move. Mercedes’s own driver stability, including extensions for George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, also complicates the market.

Commentators characterize any discussions as speculative and conditional, and there are no confirmed negotiations announced.

Mercedes unveiled a one-off, wolf-pattern livery for the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka in collaboration with Yohji Yamamoto’s Y-3 label. Digital renders showed the wolf graphic placed primarily on the top of the W17’s front wing and the campaign was promoted under the tagline “unleashing the beast.” Mercedes said the motif drew on Japanese mythology and a guardian-style philosophy, and confirmed George Russell and Kimi Antonelli (named Andrea Kimi Antonelli in some reports) would run the design from opening practice; team personnel were also set to wear pieces from the wider Y-3 collection during public appearances.

The German squad was the third Formula 1 team to unveil a special Suzuka livery, following Racing Bulls’ red-heavy “spring edition” and Haas’s Godzilla-themed VF-26, which was revealed in Tokyo with drivers Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon present. Coverage noted Suzuka was the first 2026 race to feature multiple one-off looks, with each team framing its changes as promotional and culturally linked initiatives rather than technical upgrades.

Mercedes framed the wolf front-wing as a targeted, event-specific styling choice meant to reinforce the team’s competitive posture and send a psychological message to rivals, while acknowledging the change was largely cosmetic and limited to the top of the front wing; the team also said the design was not intended as a tribute to Toto Wolff. Reporters emphasized the marketing and merchandising angle—Mercedes used the reveal as part of broader cultural outreach while seeking to continue a strong start to the 2026 season.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko said he had been in contact with Adrian Newey and described him as “not doing well.” Aston Martin subsequently announced Newey will relinquish his team-principal duties after failing to get the AMR26 competitive.

The AMR26 — Newey’s first design for Aston Martin after he joined the team in March 2025 — has been significantly off the pace and has suffered severe vibrations linked to Honda’s new power unit, along with persistent reliability problems.

According to reports the car has yet to complete a Grand Prix: Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll failed to finish the opening two races, leaving Aston Martin last in the standings.

On-track results through Australia and China underlined Mercedes’ early advantage. George Russell won the Australian Grand Prix and the Shanghai Sprint and led the drivers’ standings on 51 points, while Mercedes topped the constructors’ standings on 98 points — more than 30 clear of Ferrari.

GPS telemetry from the opening rounds showed the Ferrari SF-26 had a pronounced traction weakness versus the Mercedes W17, costing time on corner exits and harming race pace and overtaking. Engineers attributed the deficit to that loss of traction, and Mercedes’ onboard and GPS data helped pinpoint where the SF-26 was losing performance. Analysts and rival teams treated the SF-26’s weakness as a car-development problem, with GPS evidence linking the traction deficit to poorer race-distance performance and fewer overtaking opportunities.

The traction issue shaped Ferrari’s mixed early return: the team arrived in 2026 stronger than in 2025 and kept Mercedes from running entirely away with the opening rounds. Charles Leclerc remained one of the quickest drivers — he pressured Russell in Australia and still finished fourth in Shanghai despite the circuit being a known weakness for him. Lewis Hamilton ended a 16-month podium drought with third in Shanghai — his first rostrum in his 26th race weekend for Ferrari. He said he felt “back to my best” after heavy winter training, the addition of a new race engineer and improved team morale while adapting to the cars’ energy-deployment systems, but warned Ferrari still needed significant gains to match Mercedes, estimating the W17 holds roughly four to five tenths in race trim. With the Japanese Grand Prix approaching, Ferrari is aiming to build on the Shanghai podium and address the traction shortfall as it attempts to close the gap to the early leaders.