Lance Stroll has admitted that Fernando Alonso was simply faster last season. The Spaniard took a total of eight podiums, while Stroll did not finish higher than fourth place throughout the season. The 25-year-old driver wants to improve himself considerably this coming season. Stroll does this with a different training regime, as he no longer wants to take any risks during his preparation.
Stroll will be competing in his eighth season in Formula 1. The Canadian driver hopes to have taken a step compared to last year, when he was defeated by Alonso. Stroll is honest about the reason for the gap to Alonso. “He was just faster,” the single pole sitter told Motorsport.com. ‘I have some ideas I can work on, some things I want to get better at in that regard. I prefer not to use the word luck, but we had a lot of bad luck last year and that made it all a bit more challenging.’
The Aston Martin driver is mainly referring to mechanical problems during the season. Yet Stroll’s year did not start exactly as desired. The driver broke his wrist during a cycling accident and therefore had to miss the test days. His training regime has therefore been adjusted for 2024. ‘It is allowed to go running. I pay close attention to every step I take. Just run in a straight line and take good care of my limbs. I want to go to the test days in Bahrain this year.’
Stroll has a good feeling about AMR24
On Monday, the curtain was lifted from the AMR24 and the Aston Martin drivers were immediately given the opportunity to rack up some kilometers. Stroll was responsible for the first part. Stroll and Alonso eventually drove two hundred kilometers on the Silverstone circuit. “I’m very excited about the 2024 car. We’re trying to build on last year’s car. Then we definitely had a strong car at the start of the season. We got off to a strong start.’
After a strong start, Aston Martin’s performance dropped somewhat. The British racing team wants to be a lot more consistent next season. ‘There were some weaknesses in the car on certain circuits. Some of those weaknesses were exposed and we struggled more as a team. This year the whole factory has really worked hard to address the weaknesses and build on the strengths of last year’s car,” said Stroll.
