Aston Martin‘s team principal, Mike Krack, has taken responsibility for Lance Stroll‘s poor form noting that they have been unable to provide him with a consistent car.
The Canadian has only managed to finish better than ninth on four occasions throughout Formula 1’s 2023 season and is currently on a run of five races without scoring a point.
His qualifying form appears to have deserted him, culminating in a big crash at the Singapore Grand Prix as he attempted to get into Q2 on his last run and sensed his lap might not have been enough.
Despite the young driver taking blame for his own performances and bidding to do better, Krack took the pressure off him and suggested he isn’t to blame.
“You’ve seen it today again, we have not been able to provide a car that is reliable enough to do the practice sessions that he [Stroll] has to do,” Krack told the press.
“We lost a session in Monza, we lost a session in Singapore and we lost a session here.
“So these are all things that, in a field like this, when you have no practice time what do you want him to do? We have to just get better at this.
“Now there are also instances where Lance said himself, ‘I would like do better in this, in here, on this session’.
“But all in all, I think as long as we can’t provide a consistent car then how can you start to learn what you have to?”
Stroll’s 2023 US GP off to a bad start
At the Qatar GP Stroll‘s frustrations with himself boiled over and he was visible angry at another early qualifying exit. His rage led to him getting physical with his trainer, pushing him into the wall.
He subsequently was investigated by the FIA before he was given a warning for his conduct and he once again suffered another set back at the Circuit of the Americas as his AMR23 was plagued by a brake problem.
“We went out for the first base-run to check the car and we had a bit of an overheating issue on the front-left for both cars,” Krack continued.
“We had to come in because we saw the fire from the onboard and we inspected two cars.
“Unfortunately one car could not go out anymore because the repair would have taken too long, but the other car managed to go out again. Unfortunate, and not an ideal start for sprint weekend obviously.”
