Lance Stroll has been withdrawn from today’s Singapore Grand Prix following his huge crash during qualifying yesterday, his team have confirmed.
The 24-year-old was cleared by the FIA medical team following his shunt at the end of Q1. However Aston Martin said in a statement on Sunday they and the driver “have jointly agreed that he will not participate in this evening’s race.”“The team face a huge job repairing the car today and Lance is still sore following such a high impact,” the statement continued. “Lance’s focus now shifts to fully recovering ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.”
Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack said Stroll “is still feeling the after-effects of such a high-impact crash” and with another race taking place in a week’s time they had taken the decision for him not to drive today.
“Our priority now is that he makes a full and speedy recovery,” Krack continued. “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 had qualified in last place for today’s race following the crash. As he had taken part in all sessions prior to the race, F1’s rules do not allow Aston Martin to replace him in their line-up.
He missed pre-season testing in March after injuring his wrists in a cycling crash. However he recovered sufficiently in time to compete in the opening round of the season in Bahrain.
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RandomMallard
17th September 2023, 8:35
I think that’s the most logical option to be honest. He doesn’t sound fully fit, and is starting right at the back on a circuit that is very difficult to overtake on, so it makes sense not to try and rush a repair and overwork the pit crew for an endeavour that likely won’t be very fruitful anyway. And of course there’s no guarantee they would have been able to fully repair the car, considering just how damaged it was. I think it’s likely he’ll need a new chassis for that…
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
17th September 2023, 23:57
Yes, and with hindsight I’m pretty sure points weren’t on offer for him, and ofc I’m not basing it on the fact alonso ended up last (unless he passed anyone towards the end), but he was fighting for 7th or something before having the bad pit stop and the final mistake he made, and considering the gap between him and stroll, plus the 13 gap in starting position, there’s no way stroll would’ve been that close to him.
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
17th September 2023, 8:40
Oh no! Anyway…
Marcel
17th September 2023, 8:41
Well that is one SC period less in the race than.
uzsjgb (@uzsjgb)
17th September 2023, 11:13
Contrary to popular myth, Stroll rarely crashes and very rarely hits other drivers. He is a clean racer.
melanos
17th September 2023, 16:32
Absolutely, Lance has many deficiencies, he lacks pace and racecraft. But he’s no Pastor Maldonado, he is as fair and clean as anybody else.
Todfod (@todfod)
18th September 2023, 6:13
You’re right… But I guess its easy when you’re too slow to attempt an overtake and too complacent to defend a position.
kpcart
17th September 2023, 12:54
Dumb comment champ
Jere (@jerejj)
17th September 2023, 8:49
Unsurprising & reminiscent of Mick in Jeddah.
Todfod (@todfod)
17th September 2023, 9:10
Makes sense to just sit this one out.. He’s not going to score points anyways. He should seriously consider sitting out the rest of the season.. Any perhaps his F1 career as well.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
17th September 2023, 9:39
Stroll Snr has a difficult decision to make. Lance started to show decent promise around 2020 and held up reasonably against Seb but Alonso the career killer has struck again. Lance seems completely at sea and it comes across almost disinterested now (not sure if that’s fair).
Is Lawrence be tough enough to let his son go for the sake of his huge investment. We know Lawrence is a cutthroat businessman but not sure if he can say no to his son.
chimaera2003 (@chimaera2003)
17th September 2023, 10:01
@rdotquestionmark As another contributer astutely pointed out, given that there are other shareholders who are looking for a return on investment and increased share price; Lawrence’s choice could be between firing Lance or being fired himself!
MichaelN
17th September 2023, 10:23
I suspect they were all a bit surprised by how good the Aston Martin is this season. But when they are serious about challenging for titles, which Stroll has said is the long term target (because winning isn’t something you can really control), it does seem a better driver line-up is warranted. The fact that they hired Alonso seems very much a ‘learning phase’ move, where they – like with Vettel – hope to continue building the team using the experience guys like that have to point out problems in their operation etc.
Dr. Theissen pointed this out in his F1 Beyond the Grid interview about BMW, which had targets for podiums (2007), wins (2008) and championship contention (2009). When that process is either accelerated, or has a set back, it instantly causes some unrest in the organisation.
Hopefully Aston Martin can continue to be competitive, and maybe the likes of Norris, Piastri and now Lawson convince them that it’s worth taking a chance on a promising rookie.
MichaelN
17th September 2023, 10:17
Those cars were much worse (averaging around 12th-14th in qualifying) and it seems more probably that Vettel was hitting its ceiling. Vettel had far better stand-out performances in races where there were opportunities that you’d expect champions to exploit, something Stroll couldn’t do.
Now that the car is good enough for podiums and big point scoring positions, Stroll is still a ways back but has to content with people that are out of his league. That’s not meant as an insult, by the way: Stroll is still quite good at what he does, but he’s not as good as the race and title winners that he now finds himself racing.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th September 2023, 0:02
This is a good point, it’s not just alonso being stronger than vettel, it’s also the better drivers they’re now racing with with a better car.
Sviat
17th September 2023, 9:48
This means no new crash gate to let Alonso win? Another lost opportunity.
Sam de Jong
17th September 2023, 9:57
He can still put on a pope outfit and invade the track
David BR (@david-br)
17th September 2023, 12:16
I shouldn’t laugh but I did.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th September 2023, 0:05
Ahah, it would’ve been interesting, however this race aston martin seemed considerably below the level of the top cars, as in ferrari\merc\mclaren and maybe red bull, you could see that when red bulls were on 20 lap old tyres and being overtaken by everyone else fairly easily, alonso couldn’t do it, and needed a very long time to pass perez, let alone verstappen.
This makes me think even a perfectly executed crashgate 2.0 wouldn’t have got him the win cause he couldn’t defend forever with that car.
joe jopling (@jop452)
17th September 2023, 10:39
Repairing the car for today was a huge ask and probably woukd have used most of the teams spares…but they can use this to “rest” him for a few races and bring in someone else(Vettel?)..Alonso cannot advance the team with points by himself…
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th September 2023, 0:06
Don’t think vettel is a good idea, they should bring in a young and promising driver, they already know vettel’s level and he’s been racing in f1 for around 15 years; if they got a rookie who was immediately much closer to alonso, the pressure on replacing stroll would pile up!
Dan G (@dang)
17th September 2023, 11:09
Lance must be wondering if it’s worth continuing next year. He knows he’s not going to get any further in F1 and there are other things for the son of a billionaire to do in life.
kpcart
17th September 2023, 12:58
He is doing fine in f1 as a 24 year old with backing.he is teamed up against arguably the best ever f1 driver and keeping good enough speed to be an f1 driver for the next 10 years.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th September 2023, 0:08
He’s being demolished by alonso, worse than raikkonen 2014, that’s not a good look for ANY driver, no matter how low the expectations are.
Andrey Baydin (@minilemm)
17th September 2023, 11:45
“The team face a huge job repairing the car today and Lance is still sore following such a high impact,” the statement continued.
“And doesn’t feel like doing it twice”
Shimks (@shimks)
17th September 2023, 11:55
You all gave me quite a few chuckles with your disparaging comments. Poor kid. I hope he doesn’t read RaceFans!
Dale
17th September 2023, 12:45
Single-handedly reversing his team out of second in the championship …
kpcart
17th September 2023, 12:52
Good that they did thus, must have been around 60 to 80 g impact. Reminded me of many terrible indycar oval crashes, very violent at that speed no matter how much safefty on the cars. That was possibly the hardest hit in f1 since kubica 2007 canada..
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th September 2023, 0:10
I’m sure there’s been worse ones, just think about the one where grosjean’s car caught fire and split in half and ended his career.
Todfod (@todfod)
18th September 2023, 6:15
Lando’s crash at Spa 2022 was worse.. So was Max’s at British GP 2021.. Schumacher at Singapore last year as well.
swh1386 (@swh1386)
17th September 2023, 12:56
Good riddance