Aston Martin's performance director Tom McCullough defended
Lance Stroll, saying the driver had "bad luck" this season.
A direct comparison between Aston Martin teammates Lance Stroll and
Fernando Alonso shows the younger driver has been severely underperforming in terms of points collected this year.
The point difference between the two teammates caught the eye of multiple experts who criticized Stroll.
Christian Danner said he would rethink whether he really wants to be in F1 if he was in Stroll's position.
Aston Martin's performance director Tom McCullough admitted the number 18 driver started the season on a backfoot when he told the media, according to lastwordonsports.com:
"Lance we obviously know well, we’ve known him for the last few seasons. He was really on the backfoot at the start of the year."
McCullough defended Stroll, saying he has had a lot of bad luck. Admittedly, the Canadian driver went into the season with an injury, but then he had some problems in a couple of races as well.
"When the car was competitive, he was scoring the points. He’s had, and it’s easy to say ‘bad luck’, but right from race three, when he’s having an exhaust failure, and not getting the points he deserved there."
Aston Martin achieved eight podium finishes this season and all of them were scored by Alonso. which is a stat that does not speak in Stroll's favor. However, the performance director says the Canadian is doing nothing wrong.
"There’s been quite a few circumstances again recently. In Suzuka, we had a rear wing failure – nothing he’s doing wrong."
Stroll showed everybody in
Sao Paulo he can be quite fast, as he qualified in third position ahead of his two-time World Champion teammate. McCullough concluded.
"But at the end of the day, on the days when the car’s been able to score good points, he’s often not been able to do that. Which has not really been down to him, so we know if we give either of our drivers a good car, they’ll get us the points."