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After being the last driver on the grid to make a pit stop, Lance Stroll crossed the line at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to take a P16 finish. Speaking after the race, Stroll expressed his opinion that the strategy that was in play for the event wasn't the best possible one, explaining that a safety car coming out towards the latter half of the race would've been the only way for the team to score any points. The driver also shared his belief that there was either a potential to bring home a point or two, or none at all.
The Aston Martin driver started in 16th place after being eliminated in Q1, and after staying out for 39 laps on a set of hard tyres, Stroll pitted, having a limited number of laps to overtake the drivers ahead of him, and he finished the Jeddah race exactly where he started. Reflecting on the events of the race, the Canadian said [via Pit Debrief]:
“No, it was a low deg race and yeah, it was far from the optimal strategy."
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Explaining the missed opportunity the team had, Stroll elaborated:
“But the only chance we had to pick up a point was hope for a Safety Car between lap 30 and lap 40 of the race. If we would’ve got one it would have been pretty sweet.
“I think we would’ve maybe been able to pick up a point or two but the alternative was you know, come out last. We knew that going in but it could have really gone the other way very easily.
“Otherwise we would’ve just finished 13th or whatever, 12th or 13th. And you don’t get anything for that. So, I think it was the only chance we had to really do something.”
Meanwhile, Stroll's teammate, Fernando Alonso, crossed the line to take 11th place, which meant that the Aston Martin team ended their weekend in Saudi Arabia having scored no points.
Lance Stroll reveals that Aston Martin doesn't have a specific target
After the last three Grand Prixes have ended with the Aston Martin team taking no points, Lance Stroll has disclosed that the team has no specific goals in terms of making the car faster, but instead, they are just focusing on constantly improving performance for the rest of the 2025 season.
“I don’t think we have a target. I think we want to be a lot more competitive than we are at this point.
“It’s just about bringing as much performance as we can for the remainder of the year and see how much it brings. That’s all we can focus on, just bring what we can.” [via Pit Debrief]
After the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Aston Martin sits on the constructors' table with a total of 10 points, which have come thanks to Lance Stroll's sixth-place and ninth-place finishes in Australia and China, respectively.
