Despite Oscar Piastri pulling off another win, Isack Hadjar came out as the highlight of the Dutch GP. The rookie’s fairytale podium ending eclipsed another stellar storyline, though. That is the drive Lance Stroll put together with Aston Martin’s calculated strategy. The Canadian driver is still not completely satisfied with the result, though.
Stroll was having a poor race weekend right until the Sunday of the Dutch GP. He lost control and went off into the barriers at turn 3 on Friday. The driver of car #18 then endured a horrendous Saturday, crashing into turn 13 during qualifying. Stroll drove his front-left and rear-left tyres into the grass and lost control of the car. Through the gravel, he crashed hard into the barriers, taking significant damage to the front of the car.
Starting the Grand Prix from the back of the grid was never ideal. Chances of scoring points were slim, but the strategists had a plan.
Stroll hails strategy for F1 Dutch GP turnaround
Aston Martin strategists decided to start Stroll on medium compound tyres with the intention of some early overtakes. After achieving that, the Canadian was to pit twice for a fresh set of hard tyres each time.
The plan worked well as Stroll stopped for the first time on lap 8. By the time he hit pit lane, he was already ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto and Oliver Bearman. As the first safety car came out on lap 23, owing to Lewis Hamilton’s crash, Stroll was ready to continue on hard tyres while others pitted.
That advantage saw him take P12 by the time the safety car drove back in on lap 26. The Carlos Sainz-Liam Lawson incident pushed him further ahead into P10. However, the decision to pit on lap 52, one lap ahead of Charles Leclerc’s crash proves costly.
Bearman, on a one-stop strategy, pitted under the second safety car on lap 53 for mediums. The advantage saw him finish in P6, one position ahead of Stroll in P7.
“We didn’t get the safety car at the right time. No, Bearman got it, that’s why he passed us. So I think it was all about the strategy, pitting early and just undercutting everyone,” said Stroll after the Dutch GP in the print media pen.
Further explaining the strategy and his race review, he added, “We missed the first safety car because we had two hards today. So we pitted really early and the plan was to do two stops, everyone else went one stop. So we pitted very early to go hard-hard.
“But then we didn’t benefit with the safety car at the end. So we just got a lot of track position early on in the race. And then at the end we didn’t get good time with the safety car. That’s why Bearman overtook us. But the big thing today was having the two hard tyres. And no one else had a second hard.”
