De la Rosa: Stroll ‘unbeatable in many corners’ – as fast as Alonso

Formula 1 paddock PR is notorious for its ability to stretch reality, but Aston Martin team ambassador Pedro de la Rosa may have just set a world record for spin.

Appearing on a recent Beyond The Grid podcast, the former F1 driver delivered an effusive defense of Lance Stroll, describing the Canadian as “super fast”, “underrated” and, on certain circuits, practically untouchable.

Better still, according to de la Rosa, Stroll is evenly matched with his popular teammate, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.

“Lance is super fast,” he insisted. “You know, I love to watch data because I'm data-driven. And I like to see where one driver is faster than the other. And Lance, in many circuits, in many corners, is unbeatable.”

According to the Spaniard, there is no fundamental gap between the two-time World Champion and the billionaire owner's son sitting in the neighboring garage.

“It's not like you can say Lance is fast in high-speed, Fernando in... They're both very evenly matched,” he added, before doubling down.

“Lance is extremely quick in all types of corners. It's just that sometimes he's had some mistakes in qualifying or little things that then eventually if you don't qualify up there, it just compromises the whole weekend.

"That's where he's missing, you know, it's just sometimes putting everything together in quali.”

“But sometimes he gets it in quali and he outqualifies Fernando, which is like... I mean, we're talking about Fernando Alonso, you know.”

“And in races, his race pace is impressive as well. He's very good managing tyres.”

Reality calling

It is a glowing assessment, provided one strictly avoids looking at the actual statistics.

Since becoming teammates in 2023, Alonso has comprehensively demolished Stroll, outqualifying the 27-year-old 89-15 and outscoring him by an embarrassing margin of 335 points to 131.

Even with Alonso deep into his mid-forties, the Spanish veteran remains nearly three tenths per lap faster in qualifying on average.

Worse still for de la Rosa’s "unbeatable" thesis, Stroll recently achieved a milestone no driver in Formula 1 history ever wanted.

At Monza earlier this month, he set an all-time record by becoming the first driver to register 100 Q1 eliminations since the modern knockout qualifying format was introduced in 2006.

To frame a driver with a century of first-round qualifying exits as a qualifying enigma who merely makes "little mistakes" is an exceptionally bold exercise in creative license.

The great 'If'

Naturally, de la Rosa’s sanguine endorsement came with a convenient fine-print disclaimer. Stroll is only world-class, it turns out, if the machinery beneath him is absolute perfection.

“I think Lance is a very underrated driver,” de la Rosa concluded.

“When we improve the car and make it a bit more driver-friendly – I must say it's a very difficult car right now for many reasons, not only car, chassis, but also on the engine, we have to make improvements on driveability – whenever the car is driving properly, he's as quick as Fernando. There's no question about that.”

• Read also: Frustrated Alonso warns F1 ‘cannot continue in this way’

So there you have it: Lance Stroll is a generational talent, provided the track layout is ideal, the car is pristine, the weather is cooperative, and the stopwatch is turned off.

Until then, Aston Martin fans will just have to take the ambassador's word for it.

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