18 October 2023 , 16:45
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Lance Stroll's poor form has been put down to "bad luck" by his billionaire team owner father Lawrence.
Stroll Snr owns and is executive chairman of the Aston Martin team for which his son drives. The team has made steps forward in competitiveness this season, but while Fernando Alonso has been delivering strong results his team-mate has floundered.
Stroll has just 47 points from the first 17 rounds of the season and sits 10th in the drivers' standings. In comparison, Alonso has more than triple that number, has stood on the podium seven times and is fourth in the championship.
The Canadian racer is in the midst of his worst run of the year. He hasn't scored a point since the summer break and only has three to show from his last seven race weekends. Alonso's results have also worsened as their car's relative pace has declined, but still the Spaniard has managed to score regularly.
Speaking about his son's struggles, Stroll Snr was keen to point out that Lance has suffered a significant amount of misfortune in 2023. "Lance started the year on the back foot with two broken wrists for the first half-dozen races, which was very challenging, but really did a heroic job," he said.
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"He's had an unfortunate amount of bad luck. He's had nine retirements due to engine failures, or a rear-wing failure [at the Japanese GP]. Half of the races it hasn't been anything to do with his own abilities, he has just had a lot of bad luck, sadly."
Aston Martin have yet to fully figure out why Stroll's results and performances have declined as the season has progressed. But team principal Mike Krack suggested he has some idea as to what might have gone wrong for his driver.
He said: "I think we need to prove it first. The fact is that he has lost a bit of competitiveness and this is something we need to understand. We have suspicions and indications and this is I think what Lance is referring to. But then we need to make the according changes and see if this is confirmed, that if you improve that, he improves as well."
Meanwhile, Stroll himself has said on record that he believes the team's car upgrades have made it harder for him to drive it. "There's always things in every car, I mean, but I think when the car has been really good this year, I've been really happy with it. It's just recently it's been a bit more challenging," he said.
"I think we took some directions with the philosophy, of bringing upgrades aerodynamically, that I don't think made us go the step forward that we were hoping for. So, we're trying to understand that and bring some stuff to the car in the season now to fix that and help the characteristic that we had earlier in the season, where the car was more predictable, easier to drive, and more forgiving. I think we've lost some of that."