BARCELONA, Spain — Lance Stroll’s sudden and unexpected withdrawal from the Spanish Grand Prix left a lot of puzzled people in the Formula 1 paddock on Sunday, with rumors continuing to swirl around his absence.
On Saturday, several hours after qualifying, Aston Martin announced Stroll would not take part in Sunday’s race as a result of needing surgery to remedy hand and wrist pain.
The statement said the discomfort was related to a procedure he had on his wrist after a preseason injury suffered in 2023, when he had fallen off his bike during a training session and suffered multiple fractures.
It added that Stroll had been suffering some level of pain “over the course of the past six weeks,” a period of time which covered races in Miami, Imola, Monaco and this weekend’s three practice sessions and qualifying in Barcelona.
Stroll’s withdrawal came after he was eliminated in Q2, the second qualifying session, 0.5s off teammate Fernando Alonso.
Per the rules, because Stroll had taken part in qualifying, no-one was able to replace him — Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich had been in the paddock.
The sudden emergence of the injury to Stroll, son of team owner Lawrence, was a source of intrigue in the paddock.
Prominent members of three other teams told ESPN they were skeptical of Aston Martin’s official story about Stroll pulling out of the event.
Other sources told ESPN of a chaotic scene after Stroll’s elimination from qualifying, with Stroll apparently throwing a temper tantrum within the Aston Martin garage and breaking multiple things within the garage following his elimination.
An Aston Martin spokesperson told ESPN “Lance was upset” after qualifying, but did not elaborate further on details.
Other sources within the Aston Martin garage itself suggested many inside the team were unaware of Stroll’s apparently extensive and six-weeks long pain management until they read the withdrawal statement on Saturday evening.
Stroll did not mention pain management in any of his media sessions and there was no mention of it on the radio to Aston Martin during qualifying, when the statement suggested it had become so difficult to manage he sought a check-up which then determined he could not race on.
On Sunday night, ESPN put one growing paddock rumor to Aston Martin boss Mike Krack — that Stroll had injured his hand during the temper tantrum after qualifying.
“I was on the pit wall. I have not heard anything like that,” Krackk laughed. “This is typical paddock gossip”.
As for the topic of Stroll’s injury appearing out of the blue on the Saturday, Krack said drivers are known for doing whatever they can to race.
“We do not ask a driver every five minutes ‘do you have pain or not?,’ you know? You have a chat here with the physio or a chat and you understand there are some small issues.
“We’ve seen this with Lance in 2023, when he fought his way back, they want to drive. They do not want to be out. So very often, I think they drive with probably more pain than they would probably admit to be able to drive, because this is what they love to do.
“Over the last weeks, there was a mention here or there, but you’re never aware how much it is. Over the weekend, I think it was getting too much.”
The next steps are unclear, with Stroll needing a procedure to fix the troublesome hand and wrist.
The next Formula 1 event is Stroll’s home race, the Canadian Grand Prix, on June 15.
“Plan A is to have Lance in the car,” Krack said on Sunday.
Aston Martin seemingly have various options if they need someone else. Brazilian media has reported Drugovich would be willing to skip his Le Mans 24 Hours commitment to make his Formula 1 debut in Stroll’s place.
As a Mercedes customer, Aston Martin would theoretically have access to Valtteri Bottas, who is reserve driver at his former team.
Ex-McLaren driver Stoffel Vandoorne is also a reserve driver, as is American Formula 2 driver Jak Crawford, although he does not have the super licence points required to race in F1 as it stands.
Source: espn.com