'Not much difference' between Alonso and Stroll, says Mike Krack

There isn’t much to separate Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, argues Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack. According to Krack, the AMR24’s poor drivability was the biggest limiting factor this season.

Mike Krack: Alonso and Stroll evenly matched

When Aston Martin were capable of podiums at the beginning of 2023, it was Fernando Alonso who capitalised.

The Spaniard secured 6 podiums in the first 8 races, catapulting Aston Martin into knew heights at the front of the field.

Even when Aston fell down the pecking order, Alonso still managed to claim podiums in Zandvoort and Brazil – finishing 4th in the drivers standings.

Meanwhile, Lance Stroll failed to finish in the top 3 at any stage – ending the season over 100 points behind Alonso.

Across this year’s campaign, there has also been a large deficit between the Aston Martin duo.

However, Mike Krack believes his drivers are quite close in terms of ability:

“The car is super-difficult to drive,” es.motorsport quotes him as saying

“I’ll give you an example. If Lewis hadn’t hit the bollard in Abu Dhabi [qualifying], we would have been out in Q1 [with Alonso].

“Sometimes. it’s very small margins that make the difference.

“We saw Lance do a brilliant sector 2 on used tyres, quicker than Fernando, so it really is sometimes in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I think that, in general, there is not that much difference between the two.

“We look at it objectively and yes, we have a difference throughout the season. We try to analyse it and find it.

“But I think that the car is so complicated to drive that you can never predict anything…

“But I don’t want to start with questions about the drivers, because the car we gave the drivers was not good enough.”

Stroll’s position remains secure

These comments in defence of Lance Stroll are not necessarily something new from the Aston Martin team principal.

Even at the heights of Stroll’s struggles in 2024, Mike Krack made sure to shield the Canadian driver from external criticism.

Following his crash in Singapore qualifying, Krack described the accident as evidence of the 26-year-old’s commitment to Formula 1.

In some ways, Aston Martin’s lack of competitiveness has limited public discourse on the team’s driver line-up.

However, even a surface-level analysis of the British outfit shows there was a clear difference in output between the two sides of the garage.

Fernando Alonso finished this year in 9th overall – ‘best of the rest’ outside of the top four teams.

Meanwhile, Stroll finished in 12th place – 54 points behind his teammate.

Without the team’s relatively strong start to the season, the likes of Haas and Alpine would have been within striking distance in the standings.

Looking ahead to next year, Aston Martin could also be relatively anonymous in the midfield.

Their inability to make tangible progress since 2023 puts them in an awkward position until the regulations change in 2026.

With that said, the issue of Lance Stroll’s performance will become inevitably return as a significant talking point if the Silverstone-based team ever return to the front.

If Aston Martin want to maximise their potential, they cannot rely on one driver to score the majority of their points.

This is especially true in the case of Alonso, who is in the final stretch of his F1 career.

Earlier in the season, there was speculation that Yuki Tsunoda could be an option for the team in 2026. Honda’s involvement would certainly help to facilitate such a move.

Still, at least for now, there is now evidence to suggest that Mike Krack – or anyone else at Aston Martin – is ready to publicly criticise Stroll’s results.