Team mates head-to-head: Alonso vs Stroll

Stroll makes better start to second season alongside Alonso despite car trouble

2024 F1 team mates head-to-head

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Lance Stroll was utterly thrashed by new team mate Fernando Alonso last year, but has measured up against him more convincingly so far this season. He has already performed better on several metrics than he managed across the whole of last year.

For example, Stroll has already out-qualified Alonso five times this year, compared to just three the whole of 2023. He’s finished ahead five times compared to two and most tellingly has spent 251 laps in front of his team mate, again more than he did across the entire 2023 season.

What’s behind this improvement? Aston Martin have taken a step backwards from the glory days of last year, when Alonso accounted for all eight of their podium appearances. The AMR24 is not as clear an improvement over its predecessors as, for example, the W15. Alonso has been especially frustrated by its sometimes unpredictable handling.

Nonetheless the two-times world champion, F1’s most experienced driver of all time, is still leading the way on every count. And Stroll tipped the balance slightly in his favour by ignoring the team’s instruction to let Alonso past on the last lap in Hungary, having been waved past his team mate a few laps earlier in his unsuccessful pursuit of Yuki Tsunoda.

Alonso is the latest in a series of strong team mates Stroll has been able to learn from at his father’s team. How far his improvement this year is a result of the lessons he has picked up from the champion alongside him, and how far it is a consequence of the team’s troubles with its latest car, should become apparent in the second half of the season and beyond, as the pair are set to remain at the team until at least 2026.

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Alonso vs Stroll: Season summary

Alonso vs Stroll: Race-by-race

BAH SAU AUS JAP CHI MIA EMI MON CAN SPA AUT GBR HUN BEL
Alonso Q
R

Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Alonso was faster; Positive value: Stroll was faster

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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24 comments on “Stroll makes better start to second season alongside Alonso despite car trouble”

  1. I can’t help but think that the car not being great also means that Alonso’s efforts have gone to a sort of ‘efficiency mode’ where he will put in all he can when a good opportunity presents itself, but will leave some fights lie aside.

    1. It seems like in their efforts to attract Newey, which all rumors point toward being successful at this point, Lawrence and Fernando have made a concerted effort to make Lance appear less hopeless this season. I think it’s also obvious that Lance is highly motivated to look the least bit competitive w/Alonso while was motivation does FA have this season?

      1. I think this makes sense, alonso has nothing to lose being slow on purpose for a few races if that means attracting someone good enough to turn aston martin into a championship contender, as he doesn’t have other possibilities to fight for a title again, from what I hear about the interest from the top teams.

  2. Stroll getting less thrashed w/FA only having double the points instead of triple like last last season looks less impressive when you realize the amount of times:

    -Aston Martin has failed to get out Alonso for even a single times quali lap in Q3 let alone put him into a terrible traffic in other quali sessions while somehow always giving Lance time and space or

    -The fact that they used Alonso to dummy competitors into early stops in Monaco and Imola allowing Lance to run in clear air and make later stops without losing anything

    -AM had Alonso hang back to hold up and give Yuki dirty air in Canada

    Lance also seems to be more competitive with teammates the poorer the car gets.

    1. However, I will credit Stroll with looking a lot less hapless this season. He’s looked like a solid driver rather than a very mediocre driver. What I thoroughly dislike about Lance is that seems like he has the talent to be a solid driver, but has zero work ethic, seems to make zero effort to ingratiate himself with the factory or mechanics and, for very obvious reasons, never seems to be driving like he needs to prove he deserves a seat.

      1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
        4th August 2024, 9:45

        Alonso I would say is the one who looks to be putting less effort in recently though.

        Over the last 8 races, so over half the season, Alonso has only got one more point than Stroll Being 17 and 16 respectively. Stroll may have got an effectively free point in Hungary, but Alonso got effectively given 2 free points in Belgium after Russell’s disqualification so that makes the points difference between them fair again.

        Whereas the first 6 races, Alonso got 33 points and Stroll got 9! So over 3 times less.
        It was after this stage that Alonso seemed to quite suddenly drop right off and I don’t believe that is all going to be to do with Alonso and the team trying to assist Stroll while doing the opposite for Alonso. That would have been evident all season if that was the case.

        My view is that Alonso has both lost motivation and is showing evidence that he’s likely reflecting his age. I think is only slightly related to the team and him helping Stroll. The points basically being matched even though Stroll has has some issues as well as messing up in monaco really shows that even with Stroll not being very good, Alonso really hasn’t been better over the last 8 races.

        Over the whole season, despite the points difference, performance wise, I would say that Alonso has only been a little better, rather than dominate like lasts season.

        1. But as mentioned above, if this is a strategy to make stroll look better to try and attract newey, it makes sense alonso was performing early on the season and not later on, as soon as he heard newey was a possibility.

        2. The points tally is going to be closer when there are very few opportunities to score significant points and the team screwed up multiple times during that span. Alonso makes hay while the sun shines. Stroll only shines when the car is at its most uncompetitive.

  3. Roy Beedrill
    4th August 2024, 9:06

    Like how Hungarian GP comparison is “unrepresentative” and “omitted” because of team orders for Aston Martin, but not for McLaren

    1. Like how you omitted any of the context re: how Norris got ahead and ignored the fact that RF cited it as making almost zero difference in their driver comparison.

    2. notagrumpyfan
      4th August 2024, 10:48

      The problem with McLaren is that if you omit races where team orders and stupid strategy calls were made, there would be no races left to compare the drivers.

      1. Ahah, good point!

  4. Bit conspiricy i admit, but with maybe Newey coming onboard, new regulations incoming, they (thus Alonso) are not going as good as they could, because in the end it will give them more windtunnel and CFD time for the 2026 car, by not finishing too high up in the WCC.

    1. notagrumpyfan
      4th August 2024, 10:55

      They are still too good to become 6th or lower, and never had a chance to end up 4th or better.

      The only difference is how much the drivers (= team) have to pay FIA next year for their Superlicence.

  5. Both Alonso and Aston Martin have had a very underwhelming season, which seems more probable than Stroll suddenly getting notably faster. Hopefully they can get back in the mix next season.

  6. Coventry Climax
    4th August 2024, 11:02

    Stroll has always been one of the absolute most talented and best drivers we’ve had for many years. It’s just that season after season, he’s had tremendous bad luck, which, after all those years, seems ever so slightly less bad this season.

    More serious: I know this is a series of team mate comparisons, but honestly, comparing Stroll to anyone else out there is rather pointless. Whichever his results are, there won’t ever be repercussions, and he’ll be in that seat like they forgot to put the seat forming foam into a bag and just glued him in permanently.

    1. That’s a fun comment indeed, I guess he will probably be remembered as the most unlucky driver in f1 history, he could’ve won several titles if it weren’t that 95% of his races the car isn’t performing as well as the one of his teammates.

      Fun the glued permanently too, I think team mate comparisons are also useful in cases like this though, to show to readers: look, he’s being demolished again, worse than sargeant (just an example), yet he’s not leaving.

      1. Coventry Climax
        4th August 2024, 16:02

        If you mean by ‘useful comparison’ that it brings to light the financial farce show that F1 has become, then maybe. But I think most people are already aware of that too. Some say it never was a sports in the first place, but certainly what part of it was, is definitely gone now.
        It’s just too bad there isn’t any alternative. The 24h of LeMans has become part of the WEC and that’s subject to the same constrictive, BoP fakeness and revenue prioritizing FiA scam as well.

    2. He’s better in wet weather than some drivers always ranked far higher than him. Also not bad at overtaking. I think he gets judged harshly.

      1. The whole Stroll good in wet thing is a myth based on like 2 of his only 3 impressive performances ever coming in mixed conditions.

  7. Makes sense, Stroll’s strongest year for some time, Alonso’s weakest for some time with a few unforced errors creeping in.

  8. Like most everyone, I think that Alonso has a had a dip in form this year rather then Stroll faring better. Just the ‘body language’ of his driving is not as feisty or incisive as usual. It’s likely a motivation thing, given the car’s performance. Time will tell if it’s actually a decline. Hopefully the team can produce a better car while he’s still there – I would still love to see him fighting at the front before he rides off into the sunset.

    1. Likely both age and motivation. How many times can one driver give it his all to get a best possible finish of 7th-10th? People talk about wanting technical purity, but one of F1’s GOATs driving crap for 17 years in a row is one of the main byproducts.

  9. I remember when Alonso first signed with Aston Martin Mike crack said they were going to build the car around Fernando..

    I assume they built it to Alonso’s liking which means he can feel the front tires. I remember him saying if he can’t feel the tires, he’s dead meat. And they were obviously successful because Alonso had eight podiums over the course of the season. Lance had a few good races, but to say ALO trounced him wouldn’t be exaggerating.

    I don’t think it would be out of the question that Lawrence wanted Lance to have more input in the cars to even things out a bit. If that is the case, then Aston is paying a steep price. No podiums or even close to it.

    I find it hard to believe that they could take such a big step backwards in such a short period of time. it’s one thing not to keep pace with the teams in front of you but they are much worse. Something doesn’t add up. At least he showed last year what he can do with a decent car. It may have been his last hurrah.

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