Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack says there is currently "no debate" at the Silverstone-based outfit regarding the future of Lance Stroll.
Rumors recently arose that Stroll is considering his F1 future amid a difficult season that is seeing the Canadian performing well behind his Aston teammate Fernando Alonso.
Last weekend at Zandvoort, Stroll laughed off wild suggestions that he could leave the sport for a career in professional tennis. He also insisted that his heart and mind are still very much entrenched in F1.
However, it has been reported that Aston Martin Performance Technologies Group CEO Martin Whitmarsh has been making discrete inquiries about the availability and commitments of several high-profile drivers in F1.
But at Monza on Thursday, ahead of this weekend's Italian Grand Prix, Krack insisted that Aston will proceed in 2024 with its current line-up of drivers.
"It's Monza, it's driver silly season and it's a bit boring at the moment," said Krack. "I think we don't have any such debate at the moment. We will be fine next year with the two drivers."
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Pressed on whether Stroll has given any indication that he may be considering leaving his father's team and exiting F1, Krack was adamant that the 24-year-old had not.
"I think we have seen over the last week a very hard-working driver, trying to analyse every little detail where he can improve, being in the simulator, driving a lot, so I think there's nothing that goes in that direction," he assured.
Krack also pushed back on the idea that Stroll is struggling for performance relative to Alonso, suggesting that the Canadian's 121 points deficit to his teammate in the championship only tells a partial story.
"No, there is not a marked gap in performance – there is a marked gap in points. It’s important to separate between the two," he explained.
"We, as a team, are analysing the season from both perspectives, from both drivers, and I think we as a team need to do a much, much better job on that side of the garage come race strategy but also we had reliability issues and it was always hitting that car, so that is something we need to do much, much better.
"I think, in general, between drivers there is always there is a certain gap that you would say is, I would say not normal, but circumstantial.
"Sometimes you have a bit of traffic, sometimes one has a glitch in one corner, but I think the drivers are normally within three tenths.
"I think when you look at the last qualifying sessions – Q1 in Zandvoort, for example – there was nothing in between them, so I don’t think that there is any particular characteristic [of the car] that will be different for him than for Fernando."
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Krack reckons that Stroll can perform as close to Alonso as he did to fellow multiple world champion Sebastian Vettel last season.
“I think he can be just the same;" he added. "You saw it last year – we had all this discussion when Sebastian joined the team and I think it went pretty well. There is no reason why it should not be the same.
"That was the same before [when] we had a four-time World Champion, so we don’t look at it like you do in terms of who has won how many Championships.
"We brought driver of that class to take steps as a team and I think we all learn from having Fernando – and the same goes for Lance.
"So, from that point of view, it’s all normal and we need to also learn from that experience and that is something that we do on the driver side and on the team side."
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