Fernando Alonso denies “unlucky” Lance Stroll is holding back Aston Martin.
While the Spaniard claimed his fifth podium in the first six races in Monaco last weekend, the Canadian crashed out to his third retirement of the season so far.
As a result, Alonso has scored 77.5% of Aston Martin’s total points in 2023, while the team sits just one point ahead of Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship.
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But the double world champion insists that is not a fair reflection of Stroll’s ability.
“He has been very unlucky the last two events,” Alonso stated on Thursday, maintaining Lance “isn’t lacking any pace”.
“If we go back to Bahrain, driving with one hand [after an off-season injury] he was very fast. Then Jeddah he had an exhaust problem when he was in front of the Ferraris in P5.
“In Miami, we were risking too much probably in Q1 [by using just one set of tyres] and that compromised the race.
“In Monaco, the debris from Lando [Norris]’s car completely compromised the whole weekend.”
Instead, Alonso, who has formed a close relationship with Stroll, hit out at the media for the negative coverage.
“Obviously this made the headlines very easy to be hard, but I think if you see the whole weekend even in Monaco, in FP3 he was within one-tenth and a half of the fastest,” he added.
“He has provided the right feedback, info and strategy about everything.
“So I really hope for him that he has a little more luck because I don’t think that he’s missing any pace. It’s just opportunistic moments that were not on his side.”
Stroll’s best result so far this season was P4 after the crash-strewn ending in Australia, and Lance echoed the sentiment of his teammate.
“Things happen in racing and we had some tough weekends,” he said.
“It’s just how it goes. There are good weekends and bad weekends. Like every other weekend, I’m just coming into this one trying to get the most out of it.”