Photo credit: Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team
Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack came to the defense of driver Lance Stroll after it was revealed that the FIA were investigating his behavior over the course of the Qatar Grand Prix weekend. Stroll was seen on camera shoving his trainer out of the way on the way to be weighed after being eliminated in Q1, and afterwards gave a very terse press appearance comprised almost entirely of single-word answers.
The FIA stated that its compliance officer was in contact with Stroll “in relation to several incidents that may have contravened FIA rules, policies and procedures”, though it was not specified which specific incidents and/or rules were involved.
Krack remarked that “emotions [are] what we want from sportsmen and then if they react, we judge them quickly—is this right, is this wrong—we need to be careful with that. We want to see it, because then we have something to talk about, but I think it goes one step too far [when] people sit down on a sofa or in an air-conditioned room and say ‘this is too much’ or ‘you cannot do that’. I think we need to have a bit more respect for the drivers.”
He likened the situation to when “a football player that is taken off the pitch[…] doesn’t do high-five to the manager, or he throws the jersey or he throws the water bottles” and admitted that even in his own personal situation “I always try to delay as long as possible to get rid of the adrenaline.”
Krack went on to criticize the excess pressure he perceived to be placed on drivers. “I’m sure we run 10-20 times less adrenaline on the pitwall than the drivers do, but you put the microphone straight away in front of them, or you gauge every reaction that they do.”
Despite the rough qualifying session, Stroll moved up from 17th on the grid and was only outside of the points after a track limits violation, finishing 11th.
The Canadian has now failed to score since the Belgian Grand Prix. He trails teammate Fernando Alonso by a whopping 136 points in the Drivers’ Championship.
