Aston Martin clarifies why Stroll made a last-minute decision at Barcelona
Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack has opened up about Lance Stroll's withdrawal from last weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, stating that the Canadian was desperate to take part at the race.
The Canadian fractured both wrists in a cycling accident just over two weeks before the start of the 2023 season, but managed to enter the opening round in Bahrain.
Stroll looked in a fairly good shape over the opening two days of the Spanish Grand Prix, albeit he could only qualify 14th on the grid. The Montreal-born was placed under investigation having allegedly failed to be weight immediately after the session’s conclusion.
However, Aston Martin announced after qualifying that the Canadian will not race at Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix after experiencing long-term pain in his hand and wrist.
In a statement, the Silverstone-based squad said: “Over the course of the past six weeks Lance has been experiencing pain in his hand and wrist, which his medical consultant believes is in relation to the procedure he underwent in 2023.
“As a result his medical team have confirmed that he will not race tomorrow and he will undergo a procedure to rectify these issues before focusing on his recovery.”
Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich was not able to replace Stroll at the Spanish Grand Prix, as he did not participate in the qualifying session on Saturday.
Speaking to SiriusXM, Aston Martin team boss Mike Krack has opened up about Stroll's late decision to withdraw from last Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.
"I think everybody will remember 2023 when Lance had his issues after the mountain bike incident, where he was in terrible pain, He had a procedure done at the time and over the last weeks he was always mentioning pain and it didn’t go away.
"It got worse and worse, and obviously Lance being a racer, he was probably in much more pain than he was really telling us and his medical team.
"Yesterday we came to a point where it was getting too much. He went very quickly to have further checks done and the decision was taken that it is better for him not to race.
"Drivers are hard and racers. We have seen in 2023 how tough he was and I’m sure he was in much more pain than he was telling us. I always have to laugh when people question the commitment."
Explaining why Stroll made the decision so late that Aston Martin's reserve driver Felipe Drugovich was unable to take over the Canadian's AMR25, Krack said that the Canadian was desperate to take part at the race.
"He desperately wants to drive and to go to that point after qualifying and say ‘I need to get myself checked’ - that shows how hard these guys are."
Signing off with a word for Stroll's potential comeback, Krack stated: "It timeline is realistic or not, the team says. I’m an engineer, I’m not a doctor or medical staff so I cannot really say. I think in such situations you need to be respectful of people’s conditions and let the experts take the decisions, together with Lance and his staff.
"We will wait what they say. We will wait to see how the situation develops and then we will take the appropriate decisions. He will have some further tests over the next days and then we will see how we go on about it."
