Lance Stroll acknowledged he needs to cut his lap time deficit to team mate Fernando Alonso in their second season as team mates.
Alonso was comfortably the highest scorer of the two Aston Martin drivers last year, single-handled scoring almost three-quarters of the teams’ points.Stroll qualified three-tenths of a second or more slower than Alonso at 13 of last year’s 22 grands prix. Speaking at the launch of the team’s new car Stroll, told media including RaceFans he has ideas how to find “some speed” compared to his team mate this year.
“Last year, for sure, he was just quicker,” said Stroll. “I have some ideas on where to work on, some things that I want to improve on in that regard.”
However Stroll feels fortune was not always on his side last year. “I don’t like to use the word ‘luck’, but I think we had a lot of misfortune last year,” he continued, “and I think that made things more challenging.
“When we were fighting for good positions, last year, there were a lot of races where we had technical issues. We had things that just didn’t go our way. So we want to just build on last year.”
Stroll’s start to the 2023 campaign was compromised when he broke his wrists in a pre-season cycling accident. Although he recovered in time to start the first race of the year, he took longer to recover fully and feels he can “come back physically a little bit stronger” again this year. “Some of the races where I felt physically I could have been stronger,” he said.
“Every year I think is a new year so going into this year I’ll learn, I’ll evolve, I’ll think about what I can do better, how I can be better,” he continued. “But then also just take on the year and see what happens.
“Every year is a very different year in Formula 1. It depends a lot on where the car’s at, it depends a lot on many factors. But I would like to see us definitely fight for some big results this year, score a lot of points, fight for podiums and a first win in green would be nice.”
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Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
20th February 2024, 8:23
Some. Some speed.
Renzo
20th February 2024, 10:07
Slow acknowledgment too.
Osnola
20th February 2024, 11:46
Not sure if lack of talent is something you can work on…
Dance
20th February 2024, 8:59
when is he going to leave…
GeeMac (@geemac)
20th February 2024, 9:36
“A lot” Lance, you need to find “a lot” of speed. And consistency, you need to find a lot of consistency as well.
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
20th February 2024, 9:47
I’m not sure that drugs are the answer, Lance.
Maciek (@maciek)
20th February 2024, 12:31
You just won the comments section
JOA20
20th February 2024, 10:44
He didn’t say how much. That’s a start at least.
ADUB SMALLBLOCK (@waptraveler)
21st February 2024, 22:12
3-tenths is not SOME. That is out-of-class A LOT
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
20th February 2024, 10:56
And that’s why Alonso thinks he could still be racing when he’s 50!
Coventry Climax
20th February 2024, 12:03
This just does not sound at all like he’s already on top of it. What have you done over the winter?
You’d expect the analysis of everything already being done and him having trained accordingly over the winter, so he can now say he’s hopefully, but quite confident, to have made progress.
Having to play catch up from the start again won’t get him anywhere.
Rick
20th February 2024, 12:48
It doesn’t matter what Lance does or does not do as long as Sr. Is content to be a mid-field runner.
Leroy (@g-funk)
20th February 2024, 13:18
Lance is a talented driver but he is not talented enough for that seat or for F1 at this point given the drivers that are waiting to break into F1. And more talent is not something that he can “find” at this stage of his career.
MichaelN
20th February 2024, 13:33
Definitely, he’d be an asset to many sportscar teams but F1 is just a bit too much for him. Aside from that weird affinity for damp-ish conditions, he can be genuinely quick in those very specific conditions.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
20th February 2024, 18:28
No, Fernando wasn’t “just quicker”, Fernando worked very hard to make sure he was quicker. I suspect he has trained for many hours every day for weeks to drive that car around that track at near record speed. You had Sebastian, one of the best F1 drivers ever, as a team mate. He trained hard to make sure he could drive his car around the track at record speed. Now you’ve got Fernando, another F1 legend, as you team mate, and then at the end of last season you suddenly had “some ideas” on how to improve? You don’t need ideas, you need to apply yourself. An idea is useless unless it has ambition and determination. It needs a passionate heart to make its legs to run. Do your ideas have a passionate heart? I heard there was a guy called Lance Stroll, who drove an F1 car with broken bones in his arm? That sounds like a passionate heart. That is the guy who should be driving this car, not the “I have a few ideas” Lance Stroll.
FlyingLap (@flyinglapp)
20th February 2024, 21:52
If Stroll Snr could furtively buy a Red Bull RB20 and paint it in Aston’s livery, that might help Lance keep pace with Alonso.
José Lopes da Silva
21st February 2024, 10:02
«Stroll says he needs to find “some speed” in eight full Formula One season»