A crackling radio message by Lance Stroll during the Japanese GP went viral on social media on Sunday, but Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack says the Canadian’s rant was fueled by a misunderstanding.
In the closing stages of the race at Suzuka, Stroll was running just outside the top ten in P11, seven seconds behind RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and just ahead of Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg, while his Aston teammate Fernando Alonso was well up ahead in sixth position.
But on the penultimate lap of the race, Stroll was overhauled by Hulkenberg, a move that frustrated the Canadian who laid the blame over the radio on his car’s lack of top speed.
“It’s unbelievable how bad our speed is on the straight man. Like it’s a different category,” he told his race engineer, almost giggling as he derided his apparent deficit.
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But after the race, Krack had a very different and rational explanation for his driver’s perceived top speed shortfall after investigating the issue.
"This is something I have looked at actually," said Krack when asked about Stroll’s radio gibe.
"What you see across the field is that there are very small differences in terms of straight-line performance. But what you have is that at different times of the race, there are different tyre conditions, and the acceleration out of the corners is a different one.
"I think a lot of these comments come from such situations.
"If you look at the power-limited data, you see that all the cars are very, very similar. But the tyre conditions at various times of the race, you are offset by 10-12-15 laps of tyres, and then you accelerate completely differently."
Indeed, according to Motorsport.com, the speed trap readings from Sector 2, taken on the run-up to 130R, indicate only a small difference in terms of maximum velocity between Tsunoda and Stroll, with a 1.4 kph spread between the two.
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