F1 News
Lance Stroll redeemed by Adrian Newey? 'Maybe we're being unfair to him'
Lance Stroll's performance has been under the microscope for a long time now, particularly since Fernando Alonso joined the Aston Martin F1 team owned by the Canadian driver's father, mogul Lawrence Stroll. However, former F1 driver, Ralf Schumacher, has revealed that designer guru, Adrian Newey has been pleasently surprised by Stroll in the short time he's been in the British racing green team.
It was a complicated season for Stroll last year, with several incidents to his name, the formation lap for the Brazilian Grand Prix saw the biggest one yet: the Canadian had driven his AMR24 off the track, a situation further complicated by the wet conditions. Stroll then attempted to come back onto the circuit through the drenched and clumped up gravel, which beached his Aston Martin car prompted ferocious chants from the grandstands: "Drugovich! Drugovich! Drugovich!"
However, in the podcast Backstage Boxengasse, former F1 driver now turned pundit, Ralf Schumacher, has revealed that the Canadian Aston Martin driver has surprised designer guru, Newey, himself.
'Maybe the media is being unfair with Stroll'
''He (Newey) himself told me that he was positively surprised by Lance [Stroll],'' said the German revealing the contents of a conversation he recently had with the former Red Bull Racing designer. ''He seems to have a lot more energy than he lets on when you see him wandering around the paddock. That's just the way it is. So maybe we're being a little unfair to him,'' said Schumacher in hindsight, after having criticised Stroll in the past.
Newey has recently started to work in the Aston Martin team, and although his sights will be set on the 2026 car, according to several comments from fellow team members such as Fernando Alonso, the British designer will have the freedom to work not only on next year's car, but also on this year's project, the AMR25. Following what was interpreted by journalists and analysts alike as a rather unconvincing winter testing for Aston Martin, the team may look forward to Newey's input on the 2025 car.
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