There’s trouble brewing in the Aston Martin F1 team following the Hungarian Grand Prix. The cause of the unrest is Lance Stroll’s decision to ignore a team order in the final stages of the race, which disadvantaged his teammate Fernando Alonso.
While Lando Norris, leading the race on Sunday, complied with a team order from the McLaren pit wall, thereby preserving his relationship with teammate Oscar Piastri, Stroll took a different approach. By deliberately ignoring the team order, the son of Canadian billionaire and team owner Lawrence Stroll finished tenth, scoring one World Championship point for the team. Alonso was flagged just behind him in eleventh place, thus left empty-handed.
Earlier in the race, Alonso was ahead of Stroll when the Spaniard was instructed to let his teammate pass, so that he could attempt to overtake Yuki Tsunoda. Alonso’s race engineer promised him that Stroll would give back his position if he failed to actually overtake Tsunoda.
‘We Lost to Everyone’
Stroll indeed failed to close the gap, but decided not to give back his position to Alonso, despite requests from the team. Alonso did not hide his anger. Over the radio, he sarcastically and somewhat cryptically told his engineer, “I don’t want to know, my friend. We lost the race to everyone.”
Stroll recently extended his contract with his father’s F1 team. Team boss Mike Krack admitted that other options were considered before Aston Martin chose to retain the current lineup. He explained that Stroll’s fruitful relationship with Alonso was a key argument in the final decision to offer the Canadian a new contract.
The relationship was strained in Hungary, due to Stroll’s actions. This saga is sure to continue…
