Lance Stroll has praised the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team engineers for what they were able to do to improve the AMR22 during the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, and he hopes they can continue to bring the team closer to the front of the field in 2023.
It was a very difficult start to the 2022 campaign for Aston Martin and they were towards the bottom of the pack in the opening half of the season. However, results began to come in the second half of the campaign as developments were brought to the car, and they were close to overhauling Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship by the end of the season.
Stroll’s best finish came when he took sixth place in the Singapore Grand Prix as he and team-mate Sebastian Vettel benefitted from the upgraded car, and he hopes the direction the team were heading continues into next season.
“I think we really struggled at the beginning of the year,” Stroll is quoted as saying by Formula1.com. “I think we were far off the pace at the beginning of the year, but the guys have done a great job improving the car.
“You know, we introduced a new package in… was it Barcelona? That was kind of the beginning of change. And then from there, I think we’ve developed the car a lot throughout the year.
“And like I said, since the summer break, I think we’ve been in a much more competitive position. We went from, like, constantly being… most of the time out of a position to score points on pure pace, and then since the summer break, we’ve often been in positions to score points.
“We’ve definitely… made big steps in the right direction. And it’s just about… keeping on going in that direction, really, in the future.”
Stroll will have a new team-mate in Fernando Alonso in 2023, and he hopes the two of them can deliver strong results right from the start of the season, and this means avoiding any unnecessary incidents and making any unnecessary mistakes to maximise their points tally.
“I think it’s all about having… clean races,” Stroll added. “I mean, when I look back at the last few races, I think we missed out on the opportunity of points, like in Austin, both cars were doing well… and then I had a crash and then Seb had a pit stop issue.
“So we lost a lot of points there. And, you know, I think it’s really just about being competitive. And then, if we’re fast and competitive, it’s just about capitalising and, you know, scoring points.”
