The Aston Martin F1 have been on a positive and improving curve over the span of the past few race weekends, and the Austrian GP might be another important stepping stone in their quest to move up the standings.
Will it be Stroll’s time for revenge?
After some more complicated and frustrating race weekends for Lance Stroll, as well as impromptu wrist surgery he is still recovering from, the Canadian had a more positive Friday. In fact, the Aston Martin F1 driver ended his day ahead of the Austrian GP with a positive P4, as well as good feeling with the car.
Stroll had also showed good potential in the early stages of the earlier FP1, holding on to a top ten spot in that session as well up until the final heated moments. He discussed his first day back on track after last week’s hyatus, expressing his pleasure in returning to the Red Bull Ring.
“It feels good to be back in Austria – it’s a great track and I always enjoy coming back here so I’m looking forward to this weekend.“
The young driver in his ninth Formula 1 season is also looking forward to fight for more points to add to his tally. In fact, he has ended in 2025 so far only two races in the points, with a personal best finish of P5 i the Miami Sprint Race.
“We’ve seen some improvements in the car over the last few weeks and we’ll try to do the best we can here. It’s still early in the weekend for us to say where we’re at compared to everyone else, but the car is feeling good so far and we got through our run plan for the day so we’ll see tomorrow how it goes.”
A more challenging outing for Alonso
Fernando Alonso has had a decent Friday as well. The Aston Martin F1 driver unfortunately spun out during the first on track session of the Austrian GP weekend, but nevertheless he managed to recover and understand a bit more his AMR25 ahead of the second practice session of the day.
The two times World Champion ended FP2 in the top ten just like his teammate, in spite of the lack of feeling and early onset mistake. Alonso hopes to extend his current points streak in Austria, whichhas seen him score both at his home GP and in Canada.
“I’m feeling better after the last few races. With the last two in the points, the car feels like it’s coming alive again. It’s still not quite in the right window, but we will see how we progress as we go into the weekend.“
He is also already focused on preparing for the main event of the weekend, the points scoring Race on Sunday. His pre-race strategy will also see him test out for Qualifying in order to secure the best possible starting spot to have a further shot at points.
“It’s really close out there, so we need to nail the lap in Qualifying tomorrow and make sure our race pace is strong too.”
