“I have to figure out how to go a little faster”: Lance Stroll responds to Fernando Alonso being quicker than him

Aston Martin F1 driver Lance Stroll recently stated that he needed to find a way to be faster in order to match his 42-year-old teammate Fernando Alonso's level.

In his first season with the team, Spanish driver Alonso has totally dominated his young teammate from Canada. In the first half of the season, when the car was very competitive, it was the two-time world champion who had been racking points and podium finishes, while Stroll was struggling to finish in the Top-5.

Although the team has lost some performance, Lance Stroll believes there have been certain things that have been 'out of control'. Speaking with Motorsport Magazine, he said:

“I think this year is honestly a lot of things that are out of our control that have really affected us. And I think if we have clean weekends, the results will be better. That’s what I honestly believe, but also just getting more out of the car and driving a bit faster because right now Fernando has generally been faster than me. So I have to figure out how to go a little bit faster around the corners. Simple… That’s what we’re here to do, right?”

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Lance Stroll speaks on his run of 'misfortune' at the beginning of the season

The 2023 season has not been a straightforward one for Lance Stroll as he was injured in the first couple of rounds which hampered his performance. The 24-year-old also suffered some reliability concerns.

“Hopefully we get back to a stage where we’re that competitive. I do believe we can do that. I mean, it definitely didn’t help to miss 250 laps of testing or whatever it was, and just be physically not at my best earlier on in the season. However, I think more than my injury we probably got hurt more by bad fortune on the track," Stoll said.

“We were running fourth in Jeddah and then we had the engine issue. We were competitive as a team in Miami, but we had a very bad qualifying, so we were on the back foot there on a track you can’t overtake. Same thing in Monaco again, we hit [Lando] Norris’ debris in Q2, and that was just the end of our session starting 14th, and at a track where you want to be up at the front," he continued.

Lance Stroll added:

“So, those are some of our most competitive races, and I think we got more hurt by… I don’t like to use the word, but I guess bad luck in a way – misfortune, whatever you want to call it – rather than my injury.”

It will be interesting to see how the Canadian driver approaches the crucial second half of the season.