Aston Martin detail timeline of Lance Stroll’s Spanish GP withdrawal
Details of Lance Stroll's withdrawal from the Spanish Grand Prix have been provided.
Aston Martin have provided details surrounding Lance Stroll’s late withdrawal from the F1 Spanish Grand Prix.
Stroll qualified 14th for the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix but Aston Martin announced on Saturday evening that he was pulling out of the race because of a hand injury.
The Canadian is set to have a further procedure to rectify the pain he has been experiencing in recent weeks, which is suspected to be linked to surgery he had after breaking both of his wrists in a cycling accident on the eve of the 2023 season.
Aston Martin have now provided details surrounding Stroll’s worsening condition over the weekend in Barcelona.
“I think everybody will remember 2023 when Lance had his issues after the mountain bike incident, where he was in terrible pain," Aston Martin's head of trackside engineering Mike Krack told SiriusXM.
"He had a procedure done at the time and over the last weeks he was always mentioning pain and it didn’t go away. It got worse and worse, and obviously Lance being a racer, he was probably in much more pain than he was really telling us and his medical team.
"Yesterday we came to a point where it was getting too much. He went very quickly to have further checks done and the decision was taken that it is better for him not to race.”
Krack also laughed off doubts about Stroll’s commitment.
"Drivers are hard and racers. We have seen in 2023 how tough he was and I’m sure he was in much more pain than he was telling us,” he added.
“I always have to laugh when people question the commitment. He desperately wants to drive and to go to that point after qualifying and say ‘I need to get myself checked’ - that shows how hard these guys are.”
Will Lance Stroll recover in time for home race?
No timeframe has been provided on how long it is expected to take Stroll to recover, with the next round taking place at the Canadian Grand Prix on 15 June.
Krack would not commit to any timeframe when quizzed about Stroll’s return to fitness.
"I’m an engineer, I’m not a doctor or medical staff so I cannot really say," Krack said.
"I think in such situations you need to be respectful of people’s conditions and let the experts take the decisions, together with Lance and his staff. We will wait what they say. We will wait to see how the situation develops and then we will take the appropriate decisions.
"He will have some further tests over the next days and then we will see how we go on about it."
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