Aston Martin needs to understand why Lance Stroll has been struggling so much of late compared to the first part of the season, says team principal Mike Krack.
Stroll was still suffering from the effects of his pre-season cycling accident when he raced in the opening rounds but picked up three top-six finishes in the opening seven rounds, and added to that with double-points in the Baku Sprint weekend. Since then, though, the Canadian has picked up a total of 12 points from 10 races – and just three in the past eight – with Krack keen to analyze the cause of his drop-off in form.
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“It was interesting that he was much more competitive (in the race), he was actually quite happy with the car – happy always being relative, that’s clear,” Krack said. “But we have to understand why he was much, much closer in the beginning of the season and he was a little bit further away now. Is this related to how the car has changed over the season and how it will develop for the next races?
“We had quite difficult conditions in terms of wind gusts and the track not being very good. (On Sunday) it was very hot but there was much less wind and the track also cleaned up a lot more, so this is something we need to understand if there is a relationship between these.”
Stroll is being spoken to by the FIA about his conduct in Qatar, where frustration at another Q1 exit on Friday spilled over and he pushed his performance coach while not following protocols to get weighed. The driver himself believes the car has developed characteristics that are not to his liking as Aston Martin has introduced upgrades during the year, and Krack says experiments need doing to understand where that might be the case.
“I think we need to prove it first. The fact is that he has lost a bit of competitiveness and this is something we need to understand. We have suspicions, or indications, and I think this is what Lance is referring to. But we need to make the according changes and see if this is confirmed, if you improve that then he improves as well.”
Krack also noted an improvement from Aston Martin’s overall level of competitiveness in Qatar but says it wasn’t enough to give the team a chance of scoring bigger points.
“I think it was slightly better. To jump in the order I think it was just not enough. I think it was close with Ferrari – it was a little bit better but just not enough to jump a position.”