The Aston Martin Formula 1 team is still unsure when Lance Stroll will be able to return to the team after being injured in a bike accident.
Stroll was forced to skip pre-season testing from Bahrain after being involved in a recent accident in Spain.
The team has now confirmed that the injuries are in his wrist and hand area.
“He was training, trying to work on his fitness last week, he was cycling,” said team boss Mike Krack.
“He has a small incident and hurt himself and for precautionary reasons, we decided it’s better to wait a little bit and be ready next week.”
However, Krack wouldn’t go into detail regarding the extent of the injury.
“No I don’t think, this is his personal thing, so he is injured on the hand, the wrist so I don’t want to go to detail, this is privacy.”
It is understood that Stroll has sustained a fracture to his wrist but the extent of the damage has not been revealed.
When pushed on if Stroll would race in Bahrain, Krack replied: “We will let you know in time.”
Felipe Drugovich was drafted in to replace Stroll for the opening day of on-track action in Bahrain, carrying out driving duties in the morning.
However, it is not yet known if Drugovich will be back in the car on Friday and Saturday, or if Fernando Alonso will be behind the wheel on his own.
”He [Drugovich] did the morning session today so this is also something we have to do as a team to cover eventualities, we have not made the final decision yet on where we go the next few days, we will do this in the next hours,” Krack added.
Should Stroll’s absence extent to next weekend’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Drugovich would be a favourite to stand in his place.
However, the team could also call on Stoffel Vandoorne, who holds a reserve driver role with the Silverstone-based squad.
Aston Martin’s less-than-ideal start to preparations for the 2023 season continued on Friday, as electrical issues plagued the early stages of the session.
Drugovich managed 40 laps during the outing – the lowest of all 10 drivers that took part in the four-hour session.
