Lawrence Stroll said that his goal when he bought his stake in the now-Aston Martin Formula One Team was that they would be “fighting for championships”. However, the team seems more lost than ever, and this past weekend’s F1 Miami GP was proof of that.
The weekend started as one has been of late. A Q1 elimination, and mediocre practice times. However, the Sprint had a difficult results. What seemed out of nowhere was the impressive P6 finish by Lance Stroll in the sprint race. However, the race did not go the same way, as both Aston Martins finished at the bottom of the classified drivers
Stroll: “It is what it is”
Lance Stroll seems to have the luck on his side this season. Despite results that may seem disappointing, he is the only Aston Martin driver to have scored points this season. When it came to answering questions about the drivability of his car, he said that it was as expected. The F1 Miami GP seems to be the team’s weak spot since Fernando Alonso scored a podium in the first race three years ago.
“Yeah, as we expected going into it, a tough race.”
When Stroll was asked about driving a car with the known limitations coming in, he kept it simple:
“It is what it is.”
Alonso: “It’s going to be painful”
Fernando Alonso, who has seemed pretty optimistic in his interviews, was definitely not optimistic this time around, as he said that following his spin during the race, the car was essentially undriveable. However, he knew this coming in as well.
“It was difficult, the car was difficult to drive. It has been there the whole weekend and yeah, we expected a tough race and it was a tough race. So yeah, we need to regroup now, try to think what is needed for Imola and try to raise the level.”
Despite Alonso having hope for the rest of the season, he reiterated that it will be a painful next few races as the team continues to bring upgrades to the car. This is in stark comparison to the more confident and positive Alonso of years past, who always believed in the Aston Martin project and vision. He did however hold out hope for his team doing great work to try and make the car faster.
“I think it’s going to be painful, you know, I think at the beginning of the year we knew that it’s going to be a very long season, 24 races, but we tried to improve the car for sure. We want to get better, the team is doing everything, you know, it’s possible to bring upgrades to Imola and the following races and hopefully, you know, some of those will make the car a lot faster and, you know, the championship is long and the hope will be always there.”
