Lance Stroll lined up at the back of the grid for the F1 British GP but drove a wonderful race, storming from P18 to an amazing P7 finish.
The tumultuous race had most drivers starting on intermediate tyres, however with the changing conditions, the tyre decisions a few laps in proved to be crucial. Lance Stroll spent only six laps on the intermediate tyre before opting for the soft C4 tyres.
He kept them until Lap 10 when another pit stop was in order, changing to inters until Lap 41 when he went back on the soft tyres until the end of the race. Aston Martin’s strategy around Silverstone proved to be massively successful as they scored double points, with Stroll P7 and his teammate, Fernando Alonso, P9.
When speaking about his race, the Canadian stated:
“Good strategy calls, which was good, but very slow today. Chewing through tyres like crazy, lots of degradation, so that was not good.”
Difficult to hold the pace with high degradation
Despite the slow race pace of the car, Aston Martin gambled with their strategy which turned out to be hugely successful. At one point, Stroll was in the top three thanks to his rapid short stint on dries and perfect timing back to inters, and looked to finish even higher than P7.
Unfortunately for the Aston Martin driver, a stronger result did not seem possible as he was overtaken by Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly late in the day. High deg on inters and dries towards the end of the last two stints saw him drop four spots.
The Canadian driver was asked what the main struggle of the race was. He explained that the degradation proved to be the biggest challenge around Silverstone.
“Just loads of degradation on all the tyres. On the soft tyre also at the end, just loads of degradation. We can’t really hold the pace with that kind of deg.”
When asked about the positives to take from the day, Stroll once again emphasized that the strategy made the biggest difference, expressing:
“The car needs a lot of work for sure. We’re still very slow, but just good strategy calls which was points but overall the car was very difficult and not so quick.”
Post-Race Frustrations
The Aston Martin duo have both previously described the car as “slow” and stated that there is still work to be done in order for the team to be where they want.
At the end of the British GP, Stroll was speaking to his race engineer Gary Gannon on the team radio. The Canadian expressed the displeasure with the car, despite the great result.
After Gannon said: “Crazy car to drive. Amazing finish”, Stroll decided it was time for some brutal honesty:
“Crazy is an understatement. I mean it’s the worst piece of shit I’ve ever driven in my life, to be honest, but it’s okay, P7.”
His engineer continued on to stay positive and praise the Aston Martin driver’s incredible drive, responding:
“Yeah, it’s a good drive Lance, a good result. Good result from a difficult day. You did a great job in all those conditions.”
Stroll is not often one to show plenty emotion on the team radio, which could indicate that the AMR25 truly has its challenges for the driver. Considering the understandable frustration when unable to fight for podiums due to a slow car, both drivers will be eager for future upgrades.
While it looks unlikely that small improvements can lead to podium finishes this season, there is still half a season to go, and the Canadian will undoubtably give it his all.
