Aston Martin has protested the results of qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix due to the crash suffered by Carlos Sainz. Sainz lost control out of the final corner during Q2 and spun to the inside of the track, hitting the barrier and stopping with …
Aston Martin has protested the results of qualifying at the Chinese Grand Prix due to the crash suffered by Carlos Sainz.
Sainz lost control out of the final corner during Q2 and spun to the inside of the track, hitting the barrier and stopping with a broken front wing. The red flag was brought out to interrupt the session, but Sainz was then able to restart his car without external help, and returned to the pits under his own power.
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Ferrari was then able to replace the front wing and check the car for other damage before Sainz rejoined the session and advanced to Q3, while Lance Stroll was knocked out in 11th place for Aston Martin.
The protest from Aston Martin is against a breach of Article 39.6 of the Sporting Regulations, that states: “Any driver whose car stops on the track during the qualifying session or the Sprint shootout will not be permitted to take any further part in that session.”
Aston Martin demonstrated the strength of its Formula 1 team with its performance in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after facing doubts due to its poor run of form, according to team principal Mike Krack. Fernando Alonso’s third place – after a thrilling …
Aston Martin demonstrated the strength of its Formula 1 team with its performance in the Sao Paulo Grand Prix after facing doubts due to its poor run of form, according to team principal Mike Krack.
Fernando Alonso’s third place — after a thrilling battle with Sergio Perez — was Aston’s first podium since Zandvoort and only second in 12 races after its impressive start to the season faded. Lance Stroll backed that up in fifth place to secure a haul of 25 points over the weekend, marking the second-highest score for the team this season, and offering a response to a run of 21 points across the previous six rounds.
“It’s good that you spotted it, what a strong team we are,” Krack said of the post-race celebrations. “We have kept together in the difficult times; after Zandvoort we had a couple of races that were not strong. We had the tripleheader (of races on consecutive weekends), which is brutal in terms of workload, in terms of being away, timezones, heat, a lot of work with not so many results. And then to come back like we did, I think it’s a great credit to everybody involved.
“Teamwork at the track, teamwork with the factory, our campus… the lights didn’t go off — this you can believe me — in all that time. It shows that if you are a strong team and if you trust each other and believe in each other that you can do amazing things or manage amazing turnarounds.
“One week ago we were on the other side of the grid and to see how sometimes things can go. But I think after Mexico, the reaction that we have shown as a team shows that we are really gearing up for more.”
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While Alonso’s battle with Perez received the majority of the attention, Krack says the pace shown by Stroll — who finished just over six seconds adrift — highlights what is possible when Aston Martin gets its car working properly.
“You never know how much everybody still has in their tires. This is really dictating how it’s going to end. And then going for the last time down the back straight to Turn 4, I think Fernando prepared it really, really well on the exit of Turn 1 and Turn 2 and managed to overtake.
“But one thing that we shouldn’t forget — and we know the cameras were obviously always on that fight — I think for the last 20 minutes or something, what we did not see is how Lance closed on that package. So if we race maybe another 10 laps, it’s a fight for three, not a fight for two.
“So that is very, very strong for the team, very important for the team, and it’s very important for Lance. I think it showed if we provide the right car with the right behavior then both drivers can achieve incredible results.”
Lance Stroll expects Aston Martin to face a tough battle trying to hold onto a podium spot despite both cars qualifying in the top four for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix. Aston Martin’s recent form has seen the team struggling to reach Q3, but after …
Lance Stroll expects Aston Martin to face a tough battle trying to hold onto a podium spot despite both cars qualifying in the top four for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Aston Martin’s recent form has seen the team struggling to reach Q3, but after removing the majority of its recent upgraded parts for the sprint weekend it delivered a strong performance throughout Friday. Stroll outqualified Fernando Alonso to secure a spot on the top three as heavy rain closed in at Interlagos but he feels there are quicker race cars that will be a threat come Sunday.
“It was a good result today,” Stroll said. “I mean, we’re aiming for a podium; I think it’s going to be tricky though. I don’t think we have the third-quickest car. The McLarens are going to be quick on Sunday and we were fortunate with the rain coming in — we got a lap in early and I don’t think everyone got their laps in. I’m sure (Sergio) Perez is going to be coming through the field and the McLarens, but we’ll see what we can do.
“The car was feeling good throughout the session. Q3 was very tricky; my lap was pretty bad, but I think conditions changed a lot, I was missing many apexes, but, in the end, it was good enough for a top three, which is a great result.”
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With the sprint still to follow on Saturday, Stroll was also positive about his chances of another competitive showing given how comfortable he was in the Aston Martin.
“We can’t change much on the car but I was feeling good in the car today, so there’s not much I would change,” he said. “It felt pretty good throughout qualifying.”
Teammate Alonso says the result was important for Aston Martin both as a boost for the team’s morale and to answer critics after a tough run of form.
“We needed it,” Alonso said. “I think the last two grands prix we were experimenting a little bit, we were starting from the pit lane and that kind of thing, so we needed a good result in Brazil to give us a bit of hope. This proves that we understood a few things and we are quite competitive — this proves that we know what we are doing and I’m happy with that.
“I hope it’s just a clean weekend. A good sprint tomorrow and then on Sunday, obviously we have a very good position to start the race. Maybe no more rain — hopefully tomorrow a sunny day so people can enjoy more.”
Felipe Drugovich will remain Aston Martin’s test and reserve driver for 2024, as well as making an FP1 appearance in Abu Dhabi this year. The Brazilian won the Formula 2 championship in 2022 and was signed as a reserve by Aston, taking part in …
Felipe Drugovich will remain Aston Martin’s test and reserve driver for 2024, as well as making an FP1 appearance in Abu Dhabi this year.
The Brazilian won the Formula 2 championship in 2022 and was signed as a reserve by Aston, taking part in preseason testing in place of the injured Lance Stroll. Drugovich has also completed plenty of mileage in a previous generation car but a race seat in Formula 1 has not been forthcoming and he’ll retain his current role for next year.
“I’ve been really comfortable with the team, they’ve been really helpful for me and trying to prepare me as best they can,” Drugovich said. “Obviously we were waiting to see if there were other opportunities in Formula 1, but at the moment I think it’s the best option for me just to stay here.
“They are really taking care of me and one of the things I like is I can develop myself here and just try to improve on-track and off-track all the time. Also doing tests and private tests and this kind of stuff. I feel ready but I can always be more ready than this. So it’s good.”
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Drugovich will take part in FP1 at the final race of the season to get another taste of current machinery, and while he misses racing he says he feels Aston Martin would not stand in his way if an F1 race seat became available.
“I wish I was racing something, obviously. I’ve been doing it for 15 years and suddenly one year you don’t have anything to do — it’s quite tough. But even though I’m not racing I feel ready to race whenever I can thanks to these tests and all the development things I’m doing with the team.
“It’s frustrating for a driver coming up that there is no place and many drivers that have either done the same or less than you get the chance, or got the chance in the past, and you don’t. But it is what it is — we can’t change it and I just have to work as much as I can to show that I am able to be there. Maybe one day it will be enough to be a proper F1 driver for the whole year.
“It depends always on the team. I think no team would hold you if an opportunity comes — like a main seat somewhere else — but I think I’m very comfortable where I am right now. It’s a good place for me, I enjoy doing these things. At the beginning of the year I would say it was a bit hard to enjoy not racing, but you learn how to do it and I think I’m in a good place right now.”
If Drugovich is hoping a seat will open up at Aston, then Lance Stroll insists it won’t be his despite a tough second half of the season.
“The plan is I’m staying next year,” Stroll said. “It’s been a challenging season at times for sure. Some great highlights but also some really frustrating days of recent, but the plan is to keep going next year, for sure.”
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 …
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.”
The FIA is in discussions with Lance Stroll over “several incidents” at the Qatar Grand Prix that may have gone against the governing body’s rules and procedures. Stroll was captured on video pushing his performance coach Henry Howe after he tried …
The FIA is in discussions with Lance Stroll over “several incidents” at the Qatar Grand Prix that may have gone against the governing body’s rules and procedures.
Stroll was captured on video pushing his performance coach Henry Howe after he tried to stop the Aston Martin driver from walking out of the back of the garage following his Q1 elimination in qualifying on Friday; the driver having already thrown his steering wheel out of the car in frustration. Drivers are told to walk up the pit lane to be weighed after qualifying to ensure they are in full view of the FIA throughout, and do not pass through the rear of the garage.
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In his interview that followed, Stroll offered just eight words in total in response to three questions – including a curseword to describe his emotions – and while he insisted on Saturday that he and Howe are on good terms, he added that he would be unlikely to handle his frustration better in future as he added: “I f***ing hate having a bad day, I’m not going to change”.
Then after finishing ninth in Sunday’s race but being demoted to 11th by multiple track limits infringements, Stroll suggested he had been close to losing consciousness in the hot and humid conditions that affected multiple drivers.
“It’s ridiculous,” he told Sky Sports after the race. “These temperatures… Everything goes blurry. The last 25/30 laps was just blurry in the high-speed corners, blood pressure dropping and just passing out basically in the car in the high-speed corners with high G-forces.
“And then the curbs now are painted because they were worried about punctures with these high-loaded G-force corners and the tires, they painted the curbs to make the track even narrower, so you’re reliant just on your visual references to be outside of the track and what that is. But the last 20/25 laps you can’t really see anything because you’re just fainting as you go through those corners.”
Without offering any specific reasoning for why Stroll has been approached, the FIA confirmed there are multiple issues that it is keen to talk to him about.
“The FIA Compliance Officer is in discussion with Lance Stroll in relation to several incidents that may have contravened FIA rules, policies and procedures during the Qatar Grand Prix,” an FIA spokesperson said.
The FIA’s Compliance Officer’s remit includes matters such as enforcing the FIA Code of Ethics and investigating alleged concerns of misconduct.
Aston Martin told RACER it cannot comment about the situation while the discussions are ongoing.
Both Williams drivers have been assessed and cleared by medical teams after needing treatment for heat-related issues following the Qatar Grand Prix. While Esteban Ocon was sick in his helmet early in the race, that was only revealed after the …
Both Williams drivers have been assessed and cleared by medical teams after needing treatment for heat-related issues following the Qatar Grand Prix.
While Esteban Ocon was sick in his helmet early in the race, that was only revealed after the checkered flag and so it was Logan Sargeant’s radio messages that highlighted the problems drivers were facing. Sargeant told his team he was feeling unwell but insisted he could continue before eventually retiring and needing to be helped from his car, and was visited by the FIA doctor for treatment.
“Following Logan’s retirement from the grand prix, he has been assessed and cleared by the medical team on-site after suffering from intense dehydration during the race weakened by having flu like symptoms earlier in the week,” Williams confirmed.
The end of the race saw multiple drivers needing help and to take time cooling their body temperatures, but Alex Albon and Lance Stroll were two who struggled to get out of their cars in parc ferme, with Albon needing to be taken to the medical center.
“Following the Qatar Grand Prix, Alex was taken to the medical centre to be treated for acute heat exposure,” Williams also said. “He has now been assessed and cleared by the medical team.”
Stroll nearly collapsed after climbing out of his car and stumbled to a nearby ambulance for aid, but was able to return to carry out media duties and told Sky Sports he was passing out in certain corners.
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“Frustrated — we finished ninth but then two track limit penalties put us 11th, so it’s annoying that such a hard race, physically and just grinding out there, we didn’t come out with any points,” Stroll said.
“It’s ridiculous. These temperatures… Everything goes blurry. The last 25-30 laps was just blurry in the high-speed corners, blood pressure dropping and just passing out basically in the car in the high-speed corners with high G-forces.
“And then the curbs now are painted because they were worried about punctures with these high-loaded G-force corners and the tires. They painted the curbs to make the track even narrower, so you’re reliant just on your visual references to be outside of the track and what that is. But the last 20-25 laps you can’t really see anything because you’re just fainting as you go through those corners.
“It’s really a shame with such a hard fought race we only got 11th, because we finished ninth, started 17th and the car felt good today. And I felt like we had good pace and drove a good race but just super hard.”
Lance Stroll says he suffered an impact of nearly 50G in qualifying in Singapore and racing the following day would have delayed his recovery for this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix. Aston Martin and Stroll took the joint decision to withdraw Stroll …
Lance Stroll says he suffered an impact of nearly 50G in qualifying in Singapore and racing the following day would have delayed his recovery for this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Aston Martin and Stroll took the joint decision to withdraw Stroll from last weekend’s race after his heavy crash on Saturday, despite the Canadian passing the required tests. With the team struggling as Fernando Alonso finished outside the points, Stroll doesn’t view it as a justifiable absence on performance terms but says it was the right decision to be fully fit for Suzuka.
“I’m much better than I was on Sunday!” Stroll said Thursday at Suzuka. “I’m feeling OK now.
“I was fine (in that) I was healthy to race but I wasn’t physically feeling good enough to do Singapore, which is the hardest race of the year. I felt it creeping up on me on Saturday night and I knew it wasn’t going to be fun waking up on Sunday morning.
“For me it’s always an opportunity to race on Sunday and try to score some points. We saw drivers start pretty far back on Sunday and manage to climb through the field and score points. You never know what happens. If I had felt fine and really good I would have raced but I really didn’t feel like it was the right thing to do. I really think it would have delayed my recovery to come here and feel 100%.”
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Stroll also says he has no complaints over the curbs at the final corner where he crashed, saying street tracks should punish mistakes rather than be made easier for drivers.
“I mean, if it was maybe a bit flatter it could prevent something like that happening, but I think that’s also the nature of street circuits,” he said. “Singapore, Monaco, Baku, those kind of places, if there wasn’t a wall there then it would be like all the other tracks and I think that’s kind of the nice challenge about street circuits — when you do push a little bit too hard the track bites back.
“For every experience you learn from it and then put it behind you and full focus on the next weekend. That’s how I’m looking at the whole thing. It was definitely frustrating to finish the weekend like that, there was a lot more potential in the car and the weekend, but that was how it ended and now I’m fully focused and looking forward to Suzuka.”
Despite feeling fit to race in Japan, Stroll is also wary that Suzuka might not suit Aston Martin as it becomes increasingly difficult to identify a pecking order before each race weekend.
“It’s always tricky to answer this question — it’s such a tight field now and I think we’re a bit on the draggy side,” noted the Canadian. “Here, there’s still a lot of straights so it is important to be efficient. I’m not sure how our pace will be in Sector 1 in the high-speed corners, but I think if we manage to get the car well balanced, set up properly and we’re not too draggy, then we’ll have a good weekend.
“But like I said, it’s really tough to answer those questions because I don’t think it’s as clear about where you would be on certain tracks as it was in previous years, because it feels just so tight now. We see a lot of teams bounce back and forward (from) where they might have been last weekend and then on a different kind of track, the situation changes a lot, so I hope we can be very competitive.”
Aston Martin is in danger of facing a problem that Ferrari knows all too well. In 2022, the two wins in the opening three races for Charles Leclerc – coupled with his second place in Jeddah – had him leading the championship comfortably and …
Aston Martin is in danger of facing a problem that Ferrari knows all too well.
In 2022, the two wins in the opening three races for Charles Leclerc — coupled with his second place in Jeddah — had him leading the championship comfortably and expectations were raised enormously.
By mid-season, any title hopes had all but gone, and by the end of the campaign second pace in the constructors’ championship was deemed reason enough to replace Mattia Binotto with Fred Vasseur as team principal. Yet the final standings showed a clear step forward from one season to the next, and overall progress.
Aston Martin is in the same position, having started the year as Red Bull’s closest challenger and with Fernando Alonso in typically metronomic form, scoring six podiums in the first eight races. But much like Ferrari last year, that strong start has been slowly erased by improvements from rival teams that have seen Aston slip to fourth in the constructors’ standings and with McLaren closing in.
That the gap to McLaren is still 78 points shouldn’t be overlooked — a sign of how far apart the two teams were early on — but it’s hard to shake the feeling of momentum and the fact that Andrea Stella’s team has closed in by 59 points in the seven races since introducing a major update in Austria is pretty remarkable.
If the pair end the season closely matched on points, it means they had similar results, but just because one has scored them later in the year than the other, the impression of each team is very different.
And the same could be said about one of the drivers, following Lance Stroll’s huge accident in qualifying in Singapore.
Stroll sat out Sunday’s race on account of feeling sore after the big impact at the final corner in Q1, a crash that had multiple triggers. Logan Sargeant’s impeding earlier in the session meant Stroll needed a final lap to try and get through, and the traffic chaos at the end of the session left him starting his crucial attempt within two seconds of Pierre Gasly ahead.
From there, an improvement was always going to be tough, but in a last-ditch Hail Mary he tried to carry too much speed in the final sector and the outcome was almost inevitable.
That withdrawal was the first time Stroll had missed a race since 2020, despite the pre-season injuries he sustained in a cycling crash just a few weeks before the Bahrain Grand Prix. Two fractured wrists and a fractured toe didn’t stop Stroll driving through the pain barrier to race and score points, the Canadian later saying he knew what a good car the team had and he wanted to use it.
Singapore was already looking like a tough weekend before that crash, and then starting at the back feeling less than 100% on a track that is so tough to overtake on was unlikely to yield much of a return. But Stroll was not present at all on Sunday, not even to personally thank his mechanics for the huge effort overnight to get the car into a position where it would have been ready to race if needed.
It’s only a minor thing — and a slight surprise given how highly some team members speak of Stroll’s work ethic back at the factory — but it’s the sort of touch that Stroll really could do with as critics will always be quick to pounce on his errors. And perhaps in the reverse of what you’d expect given his pre-season challenges, there have been occasions to do so with increasing rather than decreasing regularity.
Part of that is surely to do with the Aston Martin being less competitive than it was at the start of the season, with even Alonso only picking up one podium in the past seven rounds. But across that span, Stroll has scored a total of 10 points, while Alonso’s return is 53.
Alonso is pretty much as tough a benchmark as Stroll could have, and missing pre-season and not feeling he was fully fit until Monaco could perhaps have excused a few of the challenging weekends that he endured — with team-related errors not helping his cause in Miami. But each time it appears the 24-year-old might be turning a corner, he’s seemed to take two steps back this season.
A strong Barcelona compared to Alonso was then followed by an off weekend at his home race in Montreal, then a strong run in qualifying and the sprint in Austria didn’t carry through to a messy Silverstone. After that, solid enough weekends where Aston was lacking overall pace in Hungary and Belgium preceded a scoreless run since the summer break.
Not totally unlike pre-season, Stroll could really do with a riposte when he returns to the car this weekend. The issues of earlier in the year should have meant he was getting stronger as the year went on, and at some point if there are recurring outside factors that are hampering opportunities to maximize a result then the common denominator needs to be looked at.
I’ve regularly said that at 24, Stroll still has time on his side. While 136 starts provide a serious amount of experience to fall back on already at that age, it doesn’t seem to be helping him deliver the level of consistency he now needs.
Stroll’s share of Aston Martin’s points haul needs to climb if the team is to take the constructors’ fight to Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Aston Martin absolutely needs more from Stroll to be able to compete against Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren given the strength of their respective partnerships. The biggest points gap between teammates across those three teams is Lando Norris (70% of total points scored) and Oscar Piastri (30%). At Aston Martin, that balance sits at 78-22% in favor of Alonso.
Only at Williams is there a greater disparity, and rookie Logan Sargeant is certainly coming under scrutiny for his future for not yet contributing to the team’s points total. Stroll has been used to criticism his entire career due to the added protection his father’s F1 investment provides, but that protection surely has a limit.
When I spoke to Stroll at Spa he insisted he doesn’t pay attention to social media or outside comments, and to be fair he doesn’t have to. But at the same time he made it clear that as a driver he was determined to improve his form and reduce the gap to Alonso, and the trend for the season does not match that target.
Reversing the momentum is as important for Stroll as it is for Aston Martin itself, otherwise the external views and perceptions become more likely to be widely held internally, too.
Lance Stroll will not race in tonight’s Singapore Grand Prix after his massive crash in qualifying on Saturday. The Canadian was trying to make it through to Q2 when he lost control in the high-speed final corner and hit the barrier heavily on the …
Lance Stroll will not race in tonight’s Singapore Grand Prix after his massive crash in qualifying on Saturday.
The Canadian was trying to make it through to Q2 when he lost control in the high-speed final corner and hit the barrier heavily on the outside of the track, severely damaging the car.
Although Stroll was able to climb out unaided and was subsequently cleared and released from the medical center, Aston Martin says he is still sore after the impact and with such a big repair job for the team the decision has been made to withdraw the car.
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“The whole team are relieved that Lance was able to step out of the car after yesterday’s accident – however, he is still feeling the after-effects of such a high-impact crash,” team principal Mike Krack said. “Our priority now is that he makes a full and speedy recovery.
“Together, we have decided that he will sit out this evening’s race and instead focus fully on returning to the cockpit for next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.”
Stroll will not be replaced in Singapore as his withdrawal came after qualifying and a replacement would need to have taken part in a practice or qualifying session to be able to drive. That leaves 19 cars on the grid for tonight’s race, and just one Aston Martin with Fernando Alonso starting from seventh.
The only race Stroll has missed in his seven-year Formula 1 career to date is the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix when he was withdrawn due to COVID, and he raced in Bahrain earlier this year despite fracturing both wrists and a toe a few weeks previously.
