F1 Is 'Not Always Smooth Sailing' Says Stroll

Wednesday, 27 December 2023 at 08:00

Aston Martin Formula One driver Lance Stroll suggested it's not always "smooth sailing" after a failed 2023 season.

Lance Stroll missed many opportunities to score points and even podiums during the most recent season. His teammate Fernando Alonso clearly showed there was potential in his car to achieve more than 74 points.

While the Spanish matador scored eight podiums and almost a race victory during the Monaco Grand Prix, Stroll struggled with his Aston Martin car, similar to Sergio Perez in Red Bull, who Max Verstappen outperformed.

The Canadian driver recently suggested that a big reason for the large point gap between his teammates has been bad luck with reliability and race strategy. As reported by Motorsportweek, he said:

"Yeah, it’s been a season with a lot of bad luck, a lot of missed opportunity. I don’t like using the words bad luck, but I think missed opportunities."

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Stroll has been outperformed by his teammates in all of the last three seasons, but he seemed to have been closer to Sebastian Vettel in 2022 and 2023.

"Sometimes it goes your way a lot. And sometimes it doesn’t always go your way. And I think as long as you try and just kind of stay present and focus on one weekend at a time, all these things that kind of go wrong can change very quickly the next race, and they all go right."

F1 can be a rollercoaster oftentimes, as Daniel Ricciardo demonstrated throughout his career, starting at Toro Rosso (AlphaTauri) and returning back to the team in 2023 after unsuccessful years at McLaren. Stroll added:

"It’s really about taking it one race at a time. And accepting that it can be a rollercoaster sometimes. It’s not always smooth sailing, it’s not always a straight line, I guess that’s racing to an extent."

Aston Martin might have a chance to compete for more podiums in 2024. Do you believe Lance Stroll can recover and match the pace of his double World Champion teammate next year?