Lance Stroll extends Aston Martin contract as team states there’s not a “big gap in terms of performance" between Fernando Alonso and the Canadian

Aston Martin announced that Lance Stroll will be staying with the team in the 2024 season alongside Fernando Alonso, stating that they believe that the gap between Stroll and the two-time World Champion is not huge.

Lawrence Stroll-owned Aston Martin signed Alonso for this season after Sebastian Vettel retired from the sport. Although the team was drastically underperforming in 2022, their comeback has been very strong this season, especially with the addition of the Spaniard on their roster. Alonso has been on the podium seven times already this season and is helping in keeping the team in tough competition with Mercedes in the Constructors standings.

While Fernando Alonso stands third in the Driver's Championship, Lance Stroll is 121 points behind him. The gap between them is huge, but team principal Mike Krack believes that the gap only exists in terms of points, but not in performance. He said, speaking to the media (including Sportskeeda) in Italy:

"We don’t have any such debate; we will be fine next year with the two drivers."

Krack added:

"There is not a marked gap in performance – there is a marked gap in points. As a team, we analyse the season from both perspectives. And as a team, we need to do a much better job on that side of the garage."

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Aston Martin boss blames reliability for Lance Stroll's lack of points

The Canadian driver has DNFed just twice so far in the season, but Mike Krack still believes that reliability is one of the issues that is hampering Lance Stroll's performance and standings. The Aston Martin team principal is adamant that their two drivers are almost at an equal level in their performance. He said:

"We have also had reliability issues, and it was always on that car. So it is something we need to do better."

Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso has not retired from a single race so far, so it seems rather questionable that the reliability of the car would be an issue. The highest Lance Stroll has finished this season is P4, but that happened only once. At an average, he has only finished at around P8.

If the driver does not improve his performance and the team decides to keep him in the lineup, Mercedes could potentially beat them in the standings. With Lewis Hamilton and George Russell locked in the team till the end of 2025, they look rather strong.

The Brackley-based outfit has already overtaken them in the standings and currently sit second with 255 points, while Aston Martin follow behind them with 215. It will be interesting to see how both teams perform this weekend at Monza.