It’s only a ‘matter of time’ until Lance Stroll is earning podiums for Aston Martin, according to team-mate and two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso.
Fernando Alonso has led the charge for Aston Martin in 2023, taking podiums in five of the opening seven rounds of the season.
Lance Stroll has so far been unable to emulate the successes of his teammate with the AMR23, leading to pressure being piled on by his father Lawrence Stroll who is also Aston Martin’s chairman.
Stroll senior has set his team the target of securing a double podium at this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix which Alonso has admitted is an ‘aggressive target’.
Naturally, the Aston Martin chairman’s calls for Stroll to finish on the podium this weekend come with the added pressure that the Canadian Grand Prix is also his home event.
Alonso has been a vocal supporter of Stroll since joining Aston Martin at the beginning of the season, even stating that he is trying to prepare the Canadian to lead the team for the “next 10 to 15 years”.
“I’ve known Lance since 2012. Actually I met him here in one of the Ferrari events when he was in the Academy,” Alonso said in Montreal.
“I think Lance is showing the speed in the car, the commitment, we saw at the beginning of the year as well, racing with a broken hand and things like that.
“You only see when you really have passion for something that you’re doing.
“And I think, for him, the most important thing now is to get the consistency, weekend after weekend. I think we saw many times in the past, sparks of Lance, in wet qualifying, in races, at the starts, lap one performance, these kinds of things that are outstanding.
“And then, some other weekends that the result was not coming or you get in a bad loop in Qualifying, so something like that, and then the weekend is a little bit compromised.”
So far in 2023, Alonso has outqualified and outraced Stroll in all rounds other than the Spanish Grand Prix last time out.
While signs of promise exist for the Canadian, Alonso emphasises that consistency is the key for Stroll to reach the next level.
“I think that consistency is going to be the next step in his career, to be constantly fighting for the top five and then at the end of the year, you see the amount of points that you gain when you get all the weekends right,” Alonso continued.
“But as I said, with the motivation, the commitment that he has, and the team that Aston Martin is building now, I think it’s a matter of time that this will come.”
