Racing
© Jonathan Borba
Aston Martin confirmed Jak Crawford will replace Fernando Alonso for the first 60 minutes of FP1 at Suzuka, marking his first free-practice outing of the 2026 season under the rookie-driver rule. The American steps into the Aston Martin AMR26 at the Japanese Grand Prix while Alonso sits out the opening hour. The run comes at Honda’s home circuit as the team works through early-season reliability trouble.
Crawford serves as Aston Martin’s third and reserve driver. He finished runner-up in the 2025 Formula 2 championship. He is a former Red Bull junior and joined Aston Martin’s junior program in 2024. The 21-year-old already has two FP1 appearances with Aston Martin, in Mexico and Abu Dhabi. He has logged more than 3,000 km in Aston Martin machinery across testing and running. This outing becomes his third FP1 in under six months, building on a program that blends simulator work with live track time.
The session fulfills the mandated rookie-driver allocation. Under this rule, teams must run a driver with no more than two Grand Prix starts in FP1 on designated occasions. Crawford qualifies for that status. Alonso will return to the car for FP2, FP3, qualifying and the race provided the car is fit. The plan keeps the race lineup intact while meeting the regulatory requirement for rookie mileage.
The recall comes as Aston Martin looks to rebound from a rough opening to 2026. The team has struggled to get the AMR26 on track across the first rounds. Reliability issues linked to the Honda power unit have limited running. The list includes vibrations, battery damage concerns and an ERS coolant fault. Those setbacks have shaped both the schedule and the development focus of the program. Sending the reserve driver out at Suzuka places the run inside Honda’s home weekend, with attention on gathering clean laps and steady data.
Aston Martin frames the FP1 as a development step for Crawford and a data-gathering exercise for the factory and power unit partner. Crawford will apply simulator learnings to real conditions at Suzuka, a fast and technical circuit that stresses every part of the package. The team expects his feedback to help with correlation work and to aid diagnosis of the reliability issues that have hampered mileage. Honda engineers will study power unit behavior across the hour to validate fixes and plan next steps.
Crawford’s recent program gives him a base to deliver that feedback. The Mexico and Abu Dhabi FP1 runs last year offered him live procedures, out-lap preparation and traffic management under time pressure. The more than 3,000 km already completed in Aston Martin cars supports consistency in inputs and allows the team to compare his data series with past sessions. That continuity can help isolate power unit phenomena such as vibration signatures or cooling performance while the car remains within known operating windows.
The team’s schedule for the weekend keeps the focus on maximizing track time once Alonso returns to the cockpit. Meeting the rookie allocation in FP1 allows Aston Martin to revert to its standard plan for FP2 and beyond, subject to reliability. The aim is to bank enough clean running to inform setup choices and to confirm the health of the power unit systems before qualifying. Crawford’s hour opens that process at a venue that will provide a clear read on balance, aero load and power delivery over a full lap of Suzuka.