Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack said Lance Stroll’s clash with a team member will be discussed internally but not in the “heat of the moment”.
Following his fourth successive Q1 elimination last weekend, Stroll tossed his steering wheel aside when he returned to the garage, then appeared to push his trainer and fellow team member Henry Howe.The driver downplayed the incident afterwards, saying “he’s a bro” and “we go through the frustrations together.”
However Krack said on Sunday in Qatar he will raise the matter with his driver at a suitable time.
“I think you have to speak about these things, but you have to put them in relation,” he said. “And I think you cannot speak in the heat of the moment.
“You need to wait, and maybe everybody sleeps one night, and then we have a look and we discuss and then the world is a different one.”
When Stroll’s frustrations boiled over in the garage last Friday, many criticised it as an excessive response to his early qualifying exit. Krack said it was not the most frustrated he has seen a driver, and suggested it was due to a series of setbacks rather than Stroll’s reaction to the situation in isolation.
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“You accumulate delivering below what you were or below your own expectations. And then that frustration comes over at one point,” Krack explained.
“You take a football player that is taken off the pitch, he doesn’t do a high-five to the co-manager or he throws the jersey away, throws the water bottles. We have seen that quite a lot.”
Krack said he tries to delay their post-session meetings as far as possible “to just try and get rid of the adrenaline” drivers experience while they are on-track.
“I’m sure we run maybe 10 to 20 times less adrenaline on the pit wall than the drivers do. But you put the microphone straight away in front of them, or you gauge every reaction that they do…
“I think emotion is what we want from sportsmen, and then if they react, we judge them quickly. You know, ‘is this right?’, ‘is this wrong?’. And I think we need to be careful with that.
“We want to see it, because then we have something to talk about. But then I think it goes one step too far. That then people sit down on the sofa or in an air conditioning room and say ‘this is too much’ or ‘you cannot do that’. I think we need to have a bit more respect for the drivers. And elite sportsman, I would say.”
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Stroll again failed to reach the second round of qualifying on Saturday. He finished 15th in the sprint race and 11th in the grand prix, missing out on his first point since July’s Belgian Grand Prix due to a track limits penalty.
However Krack drew some encouragement from Stroll’s performance on Sunday, despite the driver experiencing significant physical discomfort due to the punishing conditions, which he said left him close to passing out at one point.
“It was interesting that he was much more competitive,” said Krack. “He was actually quite happy with the car. I mean, from what I could hear now, happy being always relative, that is clear,” said Krack afterwards.”
The team is trying to get to the bottom of why Stroll is lagging so far behind Fernando Alonso at present, said Krack.
“We have to wait to understand why he was much, much closer in the beginning of the season and he is a little bit further away now – if it is related to how the car has changed over the season, and how it will develop for the next races.”
Krack said the Qatar weekend had been “a great learning exercise” for finding out what dictates Stroll’s competitivity compared to his team mate.
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After 17 rounds there is a gulf of six places and 136 points between Alonso and Stroll in the championship. The latter has suggested the development direction of the Aston Martin AMR23 has contributed to his recent loss of confidence in the car.
Krack reckons “we need to prove” if Stroll is correct in his assessment. “The fact is that he has lost a bit of competitivity, and this is something that we need to understand.
“We have suspicions, or indications, and this is I think what Lance is referring to. But then we need to make the according changes and see that if this is confirmed that if you improve that, he improves as well.”
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Dex
10th October 2023, 18:09
Krack, the man of great authority. I suppose he doesn’t want to get some shoving around himself. As long as money is good…
Ferdinand
11th October 2023, 11:29
Haha, exactly. Don’t think there will be much discussing going on there. Shoving is more likely.
Mark (@mrcento)
10th October 2023, 18:27
I mean, there’s 1 very obvious possible reason there…. It’s probably just not the one the Strolls want to admit.
Sviat
10th October 2023, 18:34
This looks like Krack almost criticizes Stroll. Did Krack find a fallback workplace in F1?
Todfod (@todfod)
11th October 2023, 6:42
The sensible investors in Aston Martin Racing told him to get the liability out.
Doggy
10th October 2023, 18:43
With regards to Lance, everything seems to be falling through the Krack…
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
10th October 2023, 19:01
This is actually the most reasonable comment I’ve seen from krack all year, we criticise stroll and rightly so, but how comes he was much closer earlier on, especially matched alonso in spain? He seems to have gotten worse lately, same reason as perez, as in car developed towards his team mate and inability to adapt?
baasbas
10th October 2023, 19:48
@esploratore1
And yours is probably the most reasonable comment on the incident in this and the previous topics
Ferdinand
11th October 2023, 11:37
According to many, if they follow the same logic, they would state that Aston develops the car only for or towards Alonso depriving Stroll of a fair chance.
Todfod (@todfod)
11th October 2023, 14:10
I’m tired of hearing that explanation by every driver who struggles, or every fan of a driver that struggles. They’re making the car as fast as possibe… the drivers need to adapt to the engineers and designers efforts, not the other way around.
It also makes no sense that a team that exists because Lawrence wanted Lance to have a strong team, would suddenly favour another driver within the team.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
10th October 2023, 19:45
Has anyone asked Henry for his feelings about being pushed by Lance? Has Lance apologised and promised it won’t happen again? There’s a difference between getting angry and losing one’s temper. “Temper” is your strength, just like in steel. I used to be a bus driver, and frequently bus drivers see things that make them angry, but they can’t let those things make them lose their temper. Lance is old enough to know he shouldn’t be treating a person essential to his success as a driver with disrespect. If Lance feels Henry somehow let him down then Lance needs to ask himself how often he listens to Henry and the other experts in the team. If Henry doesn’t make himself available to be with the team at the next GP then Lance only has himself to blame.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
10th October 2023, 20:08
His behaviour and ability wouldn’t be defended by any other team and if he wasn’t the son of the boss it would be open season on that seat.
Todfod (@todfod)
11th October 2023, 8:35
I agree.. it wouldn’t be tolerated by another team.. especially if the driver has been performing like an absolute amateur for the entire season. I feel this incident is good news for F1 fans though. This is the beginning of the end of Lance Stroll’s F1 career.
He’s been rubbish throughout his time in F1, but this season he’s been so outclassed by his teammate, that its visibly apparent to everyone in the paddock and Aston Martin’s investors as well, that Lance is the weakest link in that team. Its only a matter of time before the investors realise that their ROI is affected by Lance’s presence, and rival teams realise that he isn’t worth having in the team despite the money that he might bring.
F1 fans will jump on his numerous failures, and not make it easy for him going forward. He isn’t in the best light with the media as well.. they will be taking more stabs at him in the future. Lastly, the FIA and FOM will have their say in how he’s conducting himself as an F1 driver, in front of the press and race coverage.
If all the stakeholders involved in the sport aren’t happy having you there, there’s only a limited amount daddy can do for you.
baasbas
10th October 2023, 20:18
Krack is actually right here. This is now the third topic about it and most comments under every one of them is just an overreaction. Does he deserve criticism? Sure. But what actually happened? The frustrations got to him finally and he expressed them in a sub-optimal manner, sure. But how severe the ‘shove’ was we don’t know.
Also: if my wife scratches a rim of the car against a curb again and her face turns a shade of purple because of it, I know perfectly well it is not the correct moment to open my mouth and give some first class constructive criticism on how there is a button for her to use to dip the right side mirror and see the curb better that she repeatedly forgets to use…
Just maybe the dude was in his face like brainy smurf*
*seriously, it is brainy smurf in English?? ttsss
tielemst
11th October 2023, 8:21
Translated: Henry Howe will have to report in the office in a few days and get an earfull by Stroll sr.