An all-green path casts a dark shadow over Lance Stroll. Or so a simple graph becomes awkward…
It was just a snapshot, but it said a lot about Aston Martin’s season so far. During the second free practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix, the Formula 1 broadcast featured a graphic called “Track Dominance”, which shows in a comparison of two competitors which part of the track one is faster than the other.
The graphic in question compared the performances of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, and showed something we had rarely seen before: Alonso was faster than his teammate at every point of the Barcelona track…
– ElReyGuiri (@ElReyGuiri) June 2, 2023
British Sky Sports Her expert, Anthony Davidson, came up with a funny anecdote about her. He said they once spoke to the Japanese driver, Satoru Nakajima, who was Ayrton Senna’s teammate at Lotus 1987.
He was asked about his experiences with the Brazilian legend and what was Senna’s main strength, and where he was faster than him. “On every track, every lap, every corner…” – answered the Japanese eloquently.
If there was, we would certainly have seen numbers like Stroll more often at that time.
Alonso: The hike isn’t slow, it’s been unlucky
Fernando Alonso defended Lance Stroll, who is considered the weak link of Aston Martin. According to him, his colleague, who is far behind, is simply unlucky.
There is also a less pleasant side to the story. Stroll, who was well behind Alonso in Friday’s practice, scored just 27 points, while his teammate, who is a regular on the podium, scored 93. Stroll scored just 22.5% of Aston Martin’s points total.
In the team comparison, this Canadian is right in the field, scoring only 29.03% of his teammate’s points, which is worse than the scoreless Nic de Vries and Logan Sargeant. But their teammate only has 2 units and 1 respectively, and AlphaTauri and Williams are not cars with normal podium chances.
Stroll’s inability contributes to the fact that in most races Aston Martin, which (along with Alonso) is the second force behind Red Bull, is only one point ahead of Mercedes, the third among automakers. Stroll can say he’s already had two eliminations this year, and that too in Jeddah was caused by a faulty exhaust system through no fault of his own.