Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack believes Lance Stroll is “treated unfairly”, given the criticism levelled at him.

Stroll has faced critique at times for his level of performance alongside two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso, but Krack explained there is in fact a “very small” gap between them.

Aston Martin boss explains ‘very unfair’ treatment of Lance Stroll

Stroll was out-qualified and outscored by Alonso over the course of the season, with Aston Martin enduring a less competitive 2024 campaign compared to their multiple podiums achieved in 2023.

The points tally leans heavily in Alonso’s favour in their two seasons as team-mates to date, the Spaniard having scored 296 points to 98 for Stroll, while he holds a healthy advantage in their qualifying head-to-head to boot.

But given Alonso’s widely-held status as one of the sport’s all-time greats, Aston Martin team principal Krack explained there is an incorrect perception of his driver based on his interactions with the media, as well as his performance largely matching up well to a driver of Alonso’s stature.

“Is Lance treated unfairly? Yes, big time,” Krack told Crash.net.

“First of all, if you look at the gap that he has to his team-mate, who is one of the best of all time, it’s very small.

“We have someone who is very serious about car development, simulator driving, being fit and being constructive in the meetings.

“He is judged mainly on the delivery of media duties. He’s a racing driver and for me a racing driver has to drive in the first place.

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“Now we also know that Formula 1 has evolved, there is a lot of exposure and media duties and commitments. I think that is something people really put the focus on.

“What we do as a team, and this is especially the focus, is the gap to the one of the best of all time. He’s very competitive. Where we fall foul is just delivering the tools and the machine to both drivers to deliver that.”

Questions had also been raised about Stroll’s commitment to Formula 1 this season, before it was announced he signed a new contract for “2025 and beyond” that secured his future on the grid.

Krack moved to quash any theories about a lack of passion for the sport, however, adding there is a side to the Canadian the public does not often see – revealing a request from Stroll for extra testing late in 2024.

“Absolutely, absolutely,” he replied when asked if he can see Stroll’s passion for the sport.

“When we had the three-week break recently and I had Lance on the phone asking if we could organise some driving somehow in an old car, because he wants to drive. So that’s the difference. It’s a sport with no testing and we have someone who loves driving.

“It’s very unfair when you read some of the comments and they are often written without much research, because it suits the public opinion, let’s write that and we can fill some lines. There is a really skewed picture.

“You have that in every sport, you have the bad guys, the good guys, you have the drawer to fill and Formula 1 is the same.”

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