Lance Stroll hopes his Aston Martin team can get to the bottom of why their upgrades proved so ineffective during qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Stroll and team-mate Sebastian Vettel have managed just six points between them heading into the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend, and they introduced a B-spec car in a bid to improve their fortunes.
When the car appeared in the pit lane on Thursday though, it was immediately noticed that their sidepods looked incredibly similar to those of Red Bull, and team principal Christian Horner warned that the Silverstone team have committed a “criminal offence” if it transpires that they took intellectual property from his side.
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The evolution did not have the desired effect though, and Vettel qualified 16th ahead of 18th-placed Stroll in a dejecting day for the British outfit.
Stroll confirms that the Aston Martin design is very distinct from that of Red Bull, and wants to understand why they struggled to find any pace with the new car.
“It’s a completely different aero package, ride heights, set-ups, a lot of things change, we have to see or if we missed something or we could have done something differently,” he explained after qualifying.
“I hope we missed something. Last race we were in Q3 and now we’re out of Q1 so miles off the pace. We have to figure out why.”
Vettel was asked by Lawrence Barretto how his session went and, having been asked the same question by a reporter just prior, he quipped that he could have just recorded his previous answer.
“Just record, it’s the same question, no? I mean…” he said with a chuckle.
On a more serious note, the four-time champion expected to find more pace than he did as a result of the new setup.
“It was very short, it was only two laps and I was surprised,” explained Vettel.
“I thought we could do better today but it wasn’t the case so we were too slow and let’s see what we can get tomorrow.”
As for race pace, the 34-year-old is optimistic that he can recover some places over the course of the afternoon.
“[It] looked okay, it just doesn’t help if you start further back,” he added.
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“We should be okay tomorrow to make up some ground but let’s see.”
Aston Martin sit ninth in the Constructors’ Championship in what has been a miserable season thus far, and their performance on Saturday will have done little to lift the mood.