Alonso on Stroll: ‘He was winning every single category before joining F1'
F1 News
- Savannah Lenz
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have been for two seasons now, in which they have learned the ins and outs of working together. In the Las Vegas Padock, Alonso took to Stroll’s defence regarding how The Canadian and his driving skills are viewed.
When asked if he thought Lance Stroll was misunderstood in the media, Fernando Alonso took to Stroll's defence, "The public eye will always be harder than it should be. This is the world we are living in."
An uncompetitive car is to blame
Alonso knows exactly what the issue is when it comes to Stroll's lack of results, as the Spaniard is suffering from it as well: an uncompetitive car. "He was winning every single category before joining Formula One. He had some good performances in Formula One and some bad performances in Formula One, as everyone does, and the unlucky thing for him is that he raced with uncompetitive cars, uncompetitive cars for 90% of his career, which I think is brutal for any driver and we saw many examples in the past that if you don't have a competitive car, you have [a] very short stay in Formula 1".
Alonso quickly recalled the same thing happening to Stoffel Vandoorne, during the Belgium driver's stay at McLaren during which he drove alongside the Spanish world champion. "An example is our reserve driver here, Stoffel. A very talented driver winning Formula Three, winning Formula Two, winning everything in karting, and then you get the uncompetitive car, and after two years, maybe you don't race in Formula One anymore".
However, he added this was also happening to Stroll but that he was keeping his head held high. "Lance had uncompetitive cars for many years, and he's still happy to keep you committing and dreaming of having a competitive car one day, so this is some of the mission that we all have in Aston Martin as well, to have a competitive car".
Alonso is currently the oldest member on the grid, with 22 seasons under his belt. He admits, "I don't know if I will benefit from that because, as I said, I will not drive forever. But I hope he can have one day a competitive car and change the opinion of many, many."
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