Fernando Alonso says Lance Stroll's absence from pre-season testing weighed on Aston Martin's preparations as the Canadian could have offered an informed opinion on a few issues encountered by the Spaniard.
Stroll was sidelined from testing in Bahrain because of a wrist injury sustained last weekend in a cycling crash. The 24-year-old is on the mend but is still uncertain for next week's opening round of the 2023 world championship at Sakhir.
Stroll was replaced on Thursday morning and on Saturday morning by Aston reserve Felipe Drugovich who will likely sub for Stroll next weekend if the latter remains unable to race.
While the Brazilian acquitted himself well and never put a foot wrong, his lack of experience meant that he was unable to provide any real answers to a few questions lingering in Alonso's mind.
©AstonMartin
"It hurt a lot," Alonso told F1 TV when asked about the impact of Stroll's absence.
"I think we miss him because some of my comments and feelings with the car, we never know if it’s just me in a new team and a new car.
"Was [it] just maybe an Aston Martin thing that Lance could spot it? Brake pedal feeling, power steering… I don’t know if these are a legacy thing with the team or new in this car.
"So we cannot do it without him. So I hope he can come [back] very soon."
Aston Martin was seen by many as a revelation of sorts this week, with its emerald-green AMR23 looking very much as atop midfield contender in the capable hands of Alonso.
The two-time world champion was happy with both the mileage and the performance level of his new car, but insisted there was "a lot more to come" from the Silverstone-based outfit.
"It was very important and very nice week for us, finally, with the new car we did a filming day at Silverstone but that never feels enough because there are only eight laps I think that we did there," Alonso said.
"And yeah, obviously it is now go-time, we need to make the car as fast as possible for next week, race one.
"But we feel like there is a lot more to come from the car that we didn’t have time yet in testing – only three days – but step by step the team is working flat out.
"The car felt good all three days, we’ve been experimenting a little bit with very different routes on set-ups, and we found always positives on these new routes, so there is a clear indication that we need to change philosophy in many things on this car compared to last year’s car.
"And that obviously is a concern in a way because we will need a couple of races to optimise the package."
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