Aston Martin remain a team in a rebuilding process and have been since the team was rebranded in 2001 from Racing Point to the iconic British sports car marque. Under the second year of the new ground effect car design rules in 2023, the Silverstone based team looked to have stolen a march on the rest of the field behind Red Bull Racing
Veteran racer Fernando Alonso clocked up seven podiums in the first nine race weekends for the British Racing Green liveried F1 team, breathing renewed hope into the team first started by Eddie Jordan back in 1991. Yet despite such an epic start to the year, Aston were reigned in by F1’s big boys and finished the year in fifth place behind Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren.
Fernando’s hopes that elusive third world championship has taken a back seat in recent years, his last big hope the 2026 big regulation changes and the appointment of guru car designer Adrian Newey to the Silverstone team in March this year.
Stroll late withdrawal from Spanish GP
Whilst Aston clearly have a world class driver in Alonso, there has been a consistent smirk amongst senior paddock individuals about the team’s choice of driver to partner the double world champion. Lance Stroll, son of Aston Martin owner Lawrence, has been racing for the team since the 2019 season and on the whole has proven the poor relative of whoever his team mate has been across the garage.
Stroll has just three podiums to his name in his 174 Grand Prix starts and his approach to media events is one of a privileged son who seems to care little about how he approaches a weekend of Formula One. Stroll Jnr was injured in a bike accident in January 2023 and missed all three days of pre-season testing being replaced by reserve driver Felipe Drugovitch.
Yet despite later admitting he was not 100%, Lance insisted he took his place at the season opener in Bahrain that year. After qualifying just seventeenth in the Qatar Grand Prix, an irate Stroll appeared to shove his personal trainer into the wall in the Aston Martin pit garage before a round of “no comment” interviews when asked about the fracas.
This weekend in Spain, Lance withdrew last minute from the Grand Prix on Sunday after again failing to make Q3, while his team mate Alonso was set to start the race from tenth. The explanation offered was that he was suffering again from pain related his broken wrists in the pre-2023 season accident and would require additional surgery. Yet mysteriously, Lance had refused to attend the obligatory FIA weigh in post qualifying and could well have been disqualified from starting the race.
Aston head of trackside makes light of matter
Of course this was a big deal for the Silverstone based team, given since Stroll’s injury was only ‘discovered’ after qualifying, the team could not substitute Lance for one of their reserve drivers. Questions inevitably were asked about when the team were first aware of Strolls apparent discomfort and reports appeared on the BBC suggesting Stroll had again gone on a rampage in the Aston garage after qualifying and done himself an injury.
Ex-team boss and now head of trackside engineering for Aston, Mike Krack was asked about the alleged tantrum in the garage and potential injury suffered by Stroll. “I was on the pit wall. I have not heard anything like that,” Krack laughed and dismissed the matter as “typical paddock gossip.”
When pressed about when the team first knew of Lance’s discomfort, Krack appeared defensive stating: “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,” he said. “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.”
Krack did confirm there had been “a mention here and there” over Stroll’s suffering in the “last weeks” but insisted it was never considered serious enough to consider benching him for the race weekend in Spain. With surgery on the cards this coming week, Lance is now looking doubtful to be able to take his place behind the wheel for his upcoming home race at the Canadian Grand Prix in just eleven days time.
Briatore angered by Schumacher
Aston Martin reserve drivers in Le Mans clash
To add to Aston Martin’s troubles, their two reserve drivers Felipe Drugovich and Stoffel Vandoorne are entered in the 24 hours of Le Mans the same weekend as F1 is in Montreal and although Drugovitch is believed to have offered to drop his opportunity to drive in the iconic day night race in Northern France, another option is now on the cards.
As a Mercedes customer, Aston Martin should have access to Brackley’s reserve driver Valtteri Bottas, who competed for the entirety of the 2024 F1 season for Sauber. The Finn has ten Grand Prix victories to his name along with sixty seven podiums and is the best ‘race ready’ option the team appear to have.
Whilst Aston Martin have F2 driver Jan Crawford not on duty during the trip to Canada, the American driver does not have the super license points required to compete in F1. So from the looks of it, the flying Finn will be making a return to F1 racing rather earlier than previously thought.
Bottas is believed to be in a tight race with Sergio Perez to become the ‘experienced F1 driver’ Cadillac have reportedly said they need for their debut F1 season next year. And whilst both Bottas and Perez were racing each other in 2024, Valtteri was in a car with just the odd hope of making a top ten finish throughout the season.
Bottas in Aston test for Cadillac
Cadillac would dearly love to see how much of Valtteri from the “Mercedes’ years” remained and according to TJ13 sources within the team are keen for Aston Martin to give him a run in Canada, if Stroll is declared again unfit.
Mercedes too may feel this for them is also a good option, to keep their reserve drivers’ eye in should anything happen to Russell or Antonelli during the current season. Were Lance not the son of team owner Lawrence, it would almost be a foregone conclusion he wold be replaced in Canada next time out.
Yet as Adrian Dewey is finding to his cost, Lawrence gets what Lawrence wants, and at times the demands are without rhyme or reason. Newey clearly stated he was joining Aston Martin to focus on their car design for the huge rule changes coming in 2026, yet he has since come under pressure from the big boss to lend his eye to this year’s car, something at present which appears beyond even the genius of Newey to make more racey.
Why Verstappen snapped
The weekend of the 2025 Formula One Spanish Grand Prix was a dramatic finish to the European racing season opening triple header weekend of racing. It began in Imola with a Red Bull upgrade appearing to have solved the RB21’s tyre degrading issues, as a rampant Max Verstappen pulled away easily from the McLaren to claim victory in the race.
Given the recent Red Bull cars lack of form in Monaco, the team held few expectations coming into the weekend after Imola, and Verstappen’s P4 – an improvement on last year’s P6 – appeared to be a satisfactory result for all concerned in Milton Keynes.
The big weekend in the triumvirate of races for Verstappen was to be the one in Barcelona. Here the FIA had introduced a new technical directive, reducing the amount of flexibility allowed on the front wing by a third and McLaren were believed to be one of the teams benefitting from their playable front wing. Further, after the idiosyncratic Monaco, it was an opportunity for Red Bull to prove their win and better tyre degradation the McLaren in Imola was not a flash in the pan… READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
