Fernando Alonso is to arrive a day late for the Japanese Grand Prix as he awaits the birth of his first child.

The two-time Formula 1 champion revealed last year that he and partner Melissa Jimenez were to become parents, with the due date scheduled to clash with Japanese GP weekend.

While skipping an entire race weekend to stay at home for the birth is not a realistic option, Alonso has managed to delay his departure from home for as long as possible.

His Aston Martin team announced on Wednesday that Alonso would be skipping media duties at Suzuka on Thursday so he could leave his arrival into the track until Friday.

Alonso has already been relieved of duties in first practice, with Aston Martin's third driver Jak Crawford scheduled to take part in one of the four rookie sessions that are mandated for the year.

A short statement from Aston Martin said: "Fernando is arriving slightly later this weekend for personal family reasons and won't be attending media day at the Japanese Grand Prix.

"All is well and he will be at the track in time for Friday."

Honda still not where it wants to be

Alonso's late arrival into Japan comes ahead of what will almost certainly be another challenging weekend for Aston Martin.

The outfit has had a troubled start to 2026, suffering from reliability troubles triggered by vibration issues that have caused battery failures and even forced Alonso out of the Chinese Grand Prix because of discomfort.

Engine partner Honda has been working on reducing the vibration issues as much as possible, but has still not fully got to the bottom of the problems.

Speaking ahead of Honda's home race, its trackside general manager and chief engineer, Shintaro Orihara, said more work was needed.

"In China, we made some progress in terms of battery reliability thanks to a reduction in the vibration affecting the systems, but we must find more solutions to establish the cause of the vibrations affecting the drivers," Orihara said.

Beyond the reliability dramas that have dominated thoughts, Honda is also lacking in power, which needs to be ramped up as well.

Orihara admitted that "performance is not where we want it to be, especially regarding energy management".

He added: "We are not at the level where we wanted to be going into this weekend, but we will keep working hard to maximise our package."