Lance Stroll stated that Aston Martin needs to increase its track presence during the Formula 1 Chinese GP weekend, which will be held at the Shanghai International Circuit between March 13 and 15. For him, the team is significantly behind rivals in mileage since the start of activities in Barcelona.
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“We expected to do more laps,” the Canadian told the press. Stroll highlighted that Aston Martin completed about 150 laps fewer than the other teams so far and acknowledged that the team still cannot work normally. “Well, right now, we are struggling with many problems,” he said. “Even doing laps is difficult, so it’s not the normal approach for a weekend, where you show up and think about competing, fighting for points, or whatever you know the car is capable of.”
“At this moment, we are just struggling to get the car on track, to have a reliable package with which we can participate,” he added. The problems started back in the pre-season, when the Silverstone team had little participation in the shakedown in Barcelona and also faced difficulties during testing in Bahrain.
Team principal Adrian Newey revealed that neither Stroll nor his teammate Fernando Alonso could complete long sequences of laps without the risk of “permanent nerve damage” to their hands due to the car’s strong vibrations. Additionally, it was revealed that Honda had only two power unit batteries available during the weekend in Australia. In the final race result, Alonso completed 21 laps before retiring, while Stroll finished the race 15 laps behind after 43 non-consecutive laps.
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Even with the difficulties, the Canadian stated that his personal approach does not change. “On my side, it’s the same. I get into the cockpit, whatever machine I get into, and I try to extract the maximum from the steering wheel and the pedals. But now, I think this weekend, we just need to improve some of the problems we had in Australia and in pre-season testing, which are still: vibration, reliability, getting on track, doing laps, gaining mileage with the car.”
He concluded by highlighting the need to make up for lost time. “We are far behind the competition, just in mileage since the first day in Barcelona. So, we just need to try to be on track more this weekend — that would already be very good, I think.”
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