The teammate battle at Aston Martin has been quite skewed throughout the 2023 season. Fernando Alonso has had the upper hand over Lance Stroll, with the latter failing to perform at the level of the Spaniard, despite being in equal cars. Now, following yet another disappointing race weekend, this time in Monza, F1Maximaal’s editor-in-chief Mark Hanselman has claimed that Stroll is costing his father, the owner of the team, quite a bit of money because of his poor performances.
Stroll had a few decent performances this season, a P4 finish in Australia and a couple of P6 finishes in the Spanish GP and the Bahrain GP. However, apart from these races, Stroll had struggled massively throughout the season. To add to this, his teammate has put in scintillating performances throughout the year in the same machinery.
Aston Martin’s points in the last five rounds:
Fernando Alonso – 39
Lance Stroll – 3It’s been a tricky spell for the team… pic.twitter.com/FdgA0mrOaq
— formularacers (@formularacers_) September 4, 2023
Fernando Alonso has managed to achieve 7 podium finishes this season, with 6 of them coming in the opening 9 races of the season. His consistency has been out of the world, and the fact that he has never finished a single race out of the points proves it even further.
Lance Stroll is the reason why Aston Martin are behind Ferrari and Mercedes
The Italian GP weekend turned out to be a disaster for Stroll. He finished qualifying dead last and had to start the race from the back of the grid. Subsequently, he could only make up four places and finished P16, whereas Alonso managed to finish P9 and score two points for his team.
Alonso has scored 170 points so far and Stroll has managed a meagre 47. Aston Martin is currently fourth in the constructors championship, behind the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes, only because Alonso does not have a teammate who can back him up and bring in the points for the team.
Not bad for an “old” guy! 👀
Is Fernando Alonso exceeding expectations in the Aston Martin this year? Or is Lance Stroll simply underperforming? 🤔#F1 #ItalianGP pic.twitter.com/TnCN6GmrcT
— Autosport (@autosport) September 2, 2023
Hanselman explained, “Stroll is currently costing his father millions in the Constructors’ Championship, as Fernando Alonso is ahead of both Ferrari and Mercedes drivers, while Aston Martin is now fourth, behind both of these teams.”
Hanselman further commented that the main question now is how much patience Lawrence Stroll will show for his son. The Canadian Billionaire can earn quite a lot more if he manages to bring in someone better than his son into his team.
Stroll receives words of encouragement from the team principal
Despite the continued underperformance, Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack insisted a few days back that Stroll will remain Alonso’s partner for the next season.
Talking to the media before the Italian GP, Krack had said, “We will be fine next year with the two drivers,” when he was asked if Stroll would continue with the team.
Krack also had some kind words for Stroll as he appreciated the Canadian for putting in time in the Simulator and trying to analyze all the aspects of his performance. However, despite all of this, Stroll would need to turn up his performance if he wants to help his team make their place in the top 3.
