Fernando Alonso has hailed his relationship with current Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll as better than any others that he’s encountered in his Formula 1 career.
Aston Martin announced in the build-up to this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix that Stroll has signed a multi-year contract extension to remain with the side past 2025.
The Canadian’s latest renewal will ensure that he remains alongside Alonso going into F1’s upcoming regulation change in 2026 as Aston Martin partners with Honda.
Alonso, who penned a new deal in April, thinks an unchanged line-up represents a good move from Aston Martin as it endeavours to become genuine title challengers.
Regarding the news that his partnership with Stroll will continue into future campaigns, the Spaniard expressed: “Yeah, great news I think for the team.
“Obviously he was thinking a little bit on his future or whatever he was waiting for but for us I think it’s great news as he knows the team very well.
“I think apart for a few years in Williams he spent his career in this environment with the same group of people and he can improve things knowing what was Aston in the past, what it is now, what things have changed for better, if things change for worse, he has all this background.
“I have this from other different teams so between both of us we can try to help and take the best solutions.
“I think in this year and a half together we get along very well, so for me personally it’s also very positive news that
“I can work with someone that is just thinking in the same direction and just helping the team, not his individual wishes so it’s a good news for the team.”
Aston Martin has encountered a challenging season as upgrades have not delivered the anticipated gains and have seen the team regress towards the midfield pack.
Alonso has revealed that he and Stroll have been in constant communication over recent weeks in a bid to help the Silverstone-based squad understand its struggles.
The two-time champion has commended the working connection the pair have built together and believes that it has been practical in aiding a collective improvement.
Asked whether he’s seen Stroll develop as a driver alongside him, he said: “Yeah, I think a lot I would say, he’s a very dedicated person and committed person to his job.
“He’s doing a lot of work in the simulator, he lives in the UK and that helps. But we’ve been always in constant talk about the team and about the things in the car.
“Even the last two days we’ve been on WhatsApp constantly after Barcelona, even Sunday night after Barcelona we exchanged quite a big text and this kind of relationship that I don’t remember to have with other team-mates in the past and he’s been always very open and asking a lot of things in driving side, in braking techniques, different kind of circuits as well.
“We identified also last year and this year together with the engineers there are a couple of corners that he’s strong, a couple of corners that I’m stronger.
“Some circuits that historically I’ve been quite competitive and some circuits that Lance historically has been very competitive and we try to understand why.
“There is a pattern always that it seems that we follow and some corners that we like more than the others and the ones that we like less, if there is something to learn from our team-mates we’ve been very open and try to understand that, even working on the simulator on those techniques, so these kind of things are obviously very important for the team.
“As I said a few times as well, I’m here in this team for a very long-term project in my life, in my career and even when I’m not driving I hope Lance takes the lead of this team and I will support him even when I’m off the wheel.”
