While there was quite some controversy after the McLaren team orders up front, there was also a little intra-team controversy at the other end of the points-scoring positions. Aston Martin drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll swapped places near the end of the race, in an attempt to overtake Yuki Tsunoda in ninth.
After Satuday’s qualifying, which saw the Silverstone-based team line up seventh and eighth on the grid, the feeling was quite optimistic, but after the race this optimism was gone.
“Not too happy,” said Stroll, giving a concise summary of his feelings after the Grand Prix. “We were just slow all day, so yeah, killing tyres and no pace.”
Asked whether the upgrade package delivered the anticipated improvements, the Canadian driver was quite clear.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do. Yeah, we’ve got to make it go faster.”
Teammate Alonso primarily criticised the strategy, which saw him coming in as one of the first drivers.
“The strategy was not optimal. Very easy to say after the race. The team felt it was a good one.
“A bit surprised when we stopped in lap seven because we talked this morning, our car is hard on tyres normally so if you stop in lap seven there are 63 laps to do with one medium, one hard so it was a challenge from that point. We didn’t have the pace and strategy didn’t help.“
“We spoke this morning we have to even a little bit the stints,” Alonso continued. “If not there is a high price to pay if you do a very long sting with one set of tyres. They called me to box in lap seven or lap eight, I knew that the race was over.”
So a combination of strategy and poor pace saw the two teammates both eyeing the final point behind Tsunoda, who finished ninth after his crash in qualifying. Stroll was the quickest of the two Aston Martins at that time, which prompted the team to swap both drivers in an attempt to catch the RB driver.
“Fernando we’ve got one more lap to close up on Tsunoda,” Alonso’s race-engineer Chris Cronin told the Spaniard. “But if not we might give… we’re going to give Lance a chance.”
Once swapped, Cronin added: “We will swap back. If he doesn’t get him, we will swap back.”
Stroll was told something to similar effect, to which the Canadian driver replied: “I would have passed Fernando, but okay.”
Coming lap 70 he still was behind the Japanese driver, so his engineer Andrew Vizard urged him to swap back, as told previously.
“Lance, if you don’t get him now, you need to switch back before the line. Fernando is four seconds behind you. There is no pressure behind.
“Lance, suggest you drop back,” he added just before the line. “Let Fernando past. He’s four seconds back.”
Stroll didn’t reply and crossed the line tenth. He didn’t comment on the incident afterwards.
Alonso did, but didn’t seem too concerned about his teammate’s disobedience.
“I didn’t care too much. It was one point for the team. It doesn’t matter which car takes that point. And I think he was trying until the last corner. I think it was the right thing to do.
“The race win is different than P10, P11 but yeah if that was the agreement follow, but it could be frustrating.”
