Aston Martin F1 experienced ups and downs throughout 2023, with Lance Stroll’s form also fluctuating across the season.
Before the 2023 season even began, Aston Martin and Lance Stroll were in the headlines. Ahead of testing in Bahrain, Stroll sustained a cycling injury – putting his early campaign in doubt.
Aston’s reserve driver, Felipe Drugovich, was called upon to fill in for Stroll in testing. Unsurprisingly, this caused plenty of speculation about Stroll’s status.
When the British outfit confirmed his participation, things quickly escalated. After the first free practice session of 2023, the 25-year-old was visibly struggling to get out of his car. Aston Martin’s personnel were required to help him out of the AMR23.
Considering all this context, Lance Stroll’s P6 result was met with near-universal appraisal. An impressive qualifying in Jeddah – where he was purple in sector 2 – further increased the public support for his efforts.
This didn’t last long, though, as a sequence of poor results soon followed. Aston Martin F1 were only just establishing themselves as front-runners before their development programme worked against them.
Combined with Stroll’s points deficit to teammate Fernando Alonso, the first half of 2023 was certainly bitter-sweet. However, team principal Mike Krack believes Stroll improved massively in the last rounds of the year:
“Lance is in a great place. He’s relaxed and self-confident.
“You can see it in his body language. It’s very impressive how he has developed as a driver this year.
“He had the injury pre-season, which put him on the back foot, but he showed real grit and determination to get back behind the wheel as quickly as possible. And, despite all he had been through, he was still very fast.
“Then, later in the season, he came back fighting after a tough phase. He had a lot of pressure to deal with and handled it with a lot of assurance.
“I wish the season would have been a bit longer for him because he’s been really fast in the final rounds. We can build on that.”
In many ways, the last twelve months are a good case study into Stroll’s F1 career. Though not without highlights and impressive drives, a failure to string strong results together is a persistent weakness.
With his father, Lawrence Stroll, being the owner of Aston Martin F1, his status within the team will always be scrutinised.
The best remedy, as ever, will be to produce results next season.
Provided that Dan Fallows and his technical team can produce a competitive machine, there will be more opportunities for Stroll to prove himself against the best.
