Aston Martin F1 co-owner Lawrence Stroll believes that his son’s challenging season has been a story of “bad luck” but team boss Mike Krack says that Lance Stroll’s struggles are also likely the result of changes to the team’s car.
Stroll's results in F1 have somewhat stagnated in the past few seasons, with noteworthy performances few and far between.
The Canadian was outscored by Sebastian Vettel in 2022, but the 24-year-old has been properly dominated by Fernando Alonso this year.
Mitigating circumstances were taken into consideration at the start of the 2023 campaign as Stroll recovered from injuries sustained in an off-season cycling crash.
Oddly, his deficit to Alonso was smaller during the opening races of the season during which he qualified consistently among the top ten, also finishing in the points on race day.
But thereafter, Stroll’s performances declined even as Alonso continued this run of podiums in the upper tier of the field.
Since the Austrian Grand Prix in early July, Stroll has only scored three points compared to Alonso’s tally of 52, a shortfall that has led to legitimate questions regarding the Canadian’s future with his father’s team.
But Stroll Sr believes that his son’s hardship this season is mostly a case of hard luck.
“Lance started the year on the back foot with two broken wrists for the first half-dozen races, which was very challenging, but really did a heroic job - and he's had an unfortunate amount of bad luck," Lawrence Stroll told Sky Sports.
"He's had nine retirements due to engine failures, or a rear-wing fail [at the Japanese Grand Prix].
"Half of the races it hasn't been anything to do with his own abilities, he has just had a lot of bad luck, sadly."
While ill fortune has perhaps been a factor in Stroll’s poor results, it’s undeniable that his absolute performance relative to Alonso has fallen off a cliff since mid-summer.
"Yeah, there's things for sure,” said Stroll in Qatar last time out. “There’re always things in every car, I mean, but I think when the car has been really good this year, I've been really happy with it. And it's just recently it's been a bit more challenging."
Aston team principal Mike Krack has theorized that Stroll’s struggles are rooted in the changes undergone by Team Silverstone’s AMR23 in the second half of the season and in the handling characteristics that followed, especially regarding the car’s rear end which has become a less predictable proposition as far as Stroll is concerned.
"I think we need to prove it first," Krack said, regarding his assumption.
"The fact is that he has lost a bit of competitivity, and this is something we need to understand.
"We have suspicions and indications, and this is I think what Lance is referring to. But then we need to make the according changes and see, if this is confirmed, that if you improve that, he improves as well."
Solving Stroll’s predicament is complicated by the fact that on the other side of the Aston garage, Alonso seems quite happy with the behaviour of his car, although the Spaniard’s style is perhaps better suited to the AMR23’s current profile.
But Krack doesn’t believe that the contrast between his drivers’ styles is a key factor in Stroll’s difficulties.
"No, I think at the end of the day you normally do not go completely into such small detail in terms of understanding,” he said.
"In our case, when you have difficulties, you normally learn more, and you go into much more detail than you would do if you were just fine. It's the normal thing. And I think that we will go through a great learning exercise in that regard."
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