Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll rued choosing a “wrong” rear wing configuration that contributed to his rant over his top-speed deficit in Formula 1’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Stroll endured a nightmare weekend at Suzuka as he slumped to a Q1 exit and was then unable to add to Aston Martin’s points total as he climbed four spots to 12th.
The Canadian had latched into the rear of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, who claimed the final point, for several laps but soon became frustrated as he couldn’t mount an attack.
“It’s unbelievable how bad our speed is on the straight, man,” Stroll lamented on team radio. “It’s like a different category!”
Stroll completed a string of overtakes on slower cars through the esses in the opening sector, which he attributed to not being able to make passes down the straights.
“It was really hard with the speed on the straight, we had the wrong rear wing,” Stroll explained.
“I had to do all my overtaking at Turn 6 and I couldn’t overtake anyone on the straight due to the lack of speed.
“Overall, between qualifying and the race, it was one of those weekends to forget.”
Stroll’s radio comments drew comparisons to current team-mate Fernando Alonso’s ‘GP2 engine’ remark towards his underpowered Honda engine at Suzuka in 2015.
However, Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack has clarified that Stroll’s struggles were not down to an engine deficit or his AMR24 car possessing too much drag.
Instead, Krack has highlighted that Stroll’s disadvantage on older rubber meant other drivers were getting stronger traction and pulling clear at the start of the straights.
When asked what had been occurring on Stroll’s side to prompt his sudden mid-race radio outburst, Krack told Autosport: “This is something I have looked at actually.
“What you see across the field is that there are very small differences in terms of straight-line performance.
“But what you have is that at different times of the race, there are different tyre conditions, and the acceleration out of the corners is a different one.
“I think a lot of these comments come from such situations.
“If you look at the power-limited data, you see that all the cars are very, very similar.
“But the tyre conditions at various times of the race, you are offset by 10-12-15 laps of tyres, and then you accelerate completely differently.”
