Aston Martin F1 driver Lance Stroll reflected on the 2023 Sao Paulo Grand Prix at Interlagos Circuit after finishing P5.
Aston Martin made an amazing recovery during the most recent weekend after two unsuccessful Grand Prix weekends in the United States and Mexico City.
Starting from P3 and P4, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso finished in P5 and P3 during the race on Sunday, capitalizing on the retirement of Leclerc and the slow pace of Mercedes and Ferrari.
Aston Martin performance director Tom McCullough highlighted the performances of his drivers as he told the media during the weekend: "Our main issue hasn’t been the drivers."
Even though the team achieved an amazing result, there were still some places for improvement. Lance Stroll told the media after the race.
"It was both starts, even on the second start, we were both pretty poor compared to the Mercedes and Red Bulls."
During the first start, Fernando Alonso and Stroll were overtaken by Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton before the first corner.
For the second start, the two-time World Champion managed to keep his position, but the Canadian fell down two places again as he got overtaken by George Russell and Sergio Perez.
"So it was kind of a bummer, and without that, I think there was maybe another couple of positions in it, but it is what it is."
Nevertheless, Stroll looked at the positives as he reflected on how much the Aston Martin team has learned over the last few months.
"We learned a bunch of things over the last couple of months, and we didn't have a pace like this. I can't really remember [when we did have such good pace], it was probably like Canada or Austria, so it is really positive."
The British team will want to replicate the results during the last two races in Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi as the battle with McLaren for the fourth place in the Championship stays very much open.
"We will have to look into the data and understand [everything] with the car this weekend, but we've definitely been competitive."