“I can’t wait to get going”: Lance Stroll talks about the ‘strong progress’ made by Aston Martin over the winter break

Lance Stroll feels that the progress made by Aston Martin during the winter break will give them a strong start in 2024. The Canadian driver also said that the Silverstone team are ready to improve on their previous season's strong base.

Aston Martin developed a competitive car in 2023, the AMR23, but halfway through the calendar, they started to trail off in their performance. Stroll reckons that they were able to understand the car better towards the end of the season, which has helped them develop the AMR24 car.

Speaking in a team press release at the launch of the new car, Lance Stroll said (via Aston Martin's official website):

“There has been a real buzz around the AMRTC this winter. We’re still a young team, but we’re growing up fast. There’s that hunger and belief when you walk around the campus – a credit to all of the amazing people working here."

"We all want to push on from what we achieved last year, especially in the final part of the season when we made some strong progress - learning more about the car. I think that sets us up nicely for the new season and I can’t wait to get going.”

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Lance Stroll feels misfortune made the 2023 season a difficult one

Lance Stroll believes technical issues and misfortune led to a challenging 2023 season. He said that compared to Fernando Alonso, he was slower at times but was able to work on his weaknesses and iron out flaws. The 25-year-old had also broken his wrists earlier in the season and underwent surgery to be able to race again.

Speaking to on-site media at the launch of their 2024 car, Lance Stroll said:

“Some speed last year for sure, he [Alonso] was just quicker. I have some ideas on where to work on, some things that I want to improve on, for sure, in that regard. I don't want to, I don't like to use the word luck, but I think we had a lot of misfortune last year and I think that kind of made things more challenging when we were fighting for good positions. Last year, there were a lot of races where we had technical issues. You know, we had things that just didn't go our way. We want to just build on last year.”

Alonso contributed to the points tally a total of 206 points which made him finish fourth in the drivers’ standings. However, Stroll was able to score only 74 points for the team. Given that Alonso is one of the most experienced and talented drivers on the grid, the pace deficit between the Aston Martin duo was significant. Stroll was able to match the 42-year-old on some tracks but lacked consistency.