While starting from the pit lane last weekend turned out to be the right decision for Lance Stroll, a lack of car pace held him back. After struggling near the back for most of the race, even after the red flag, the Canadian collided with Valtteri Bottas and had to retire because of damage.
This is another weekend in a spell of bad ones for Stroll and for Aston Martin, as Austin has been the bright point in what has otherwise been a rut compared to the beginning of the season.
While struggling to escape Q1, and trying to regain their 4th place in the Constructors’ Championship, both cards DNF’d this race, leaving Mexico City 20 points behind McLaren.
Photo Credit: Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team
The Canadian took the time to talk about the incident that ended his race. He felt it was a racing incident due to the tight nature of the stadium section.
“Not much to say — just racing. Tricky corner tight exit and then leads onto the next.
“It’s just one of those racing incidents I think where I went for a dive, ran out of space and touched.”
This was the second weekend in a row that Stroll started from the pitlane, and this time, he said that the decision from the team to switch set-up and parts was the right decision as he had a clear pace advantage on Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard even let him through early in the race.
“Yeah, well I think it was actually the right thing to do. I think we had a better car today than Fernando. We were quite a bit quicker than him.
“So maybe some good stuff to take away from it but still very slow compared to where we want to be. Yeah, not fighting for anything out there really.”
While this weekend was not a sprint, which actually gave Aston Martin time to learn about their car, Stroll says that the car is lacking fundamental pace.
“I don’t think it was improved in any way in particular. (Fernando) looked like he was struggling a bit.“
Photo Credit: Aston Martin Cognizant Aramco F1 Team
When asked how lost the team is with the car, Stroll negated the question, and gave credit to everyone working on the car and that there’s only on way to go: upwards.
“I think everyone back at the factory is pushing hard, and we just have to keep pushing hard. [We’re] trying to improve as much as we can moving forward. That’s all we can do. We are where we are and we need to try and do everything we can to move forward.”
While Stroll has certainly not been up to par with his teammate, Fernando Alonso, there were some positives this weekend in regards to his pace against the two-time World Champion, even though they both failed to finish.
