David Croft does “not buy” Aston Martin’s claim they were monitoring Lance Stroll’s injury for “six weeks” as “surely” they would’ve put Felipe Drugovich in the car ahead of qualifying.

Aston Martin announced in the wake of qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix that Stroll had withdrawn from the event due to pain in his hand and wrist.

Lance Stroll withdrew from the Spanish GP

Stroll qualified 14th at the Barcelona circuit, where the Canadian driver was over half a second slower than his team-mate Fernando Alonso in Q2.

Hours later, Aston Martin announced that he would not take up his position on the grid.

In a statement issued to PlanetF1.com, the team said: “Over the course of the past six weeks Lance has been experiencing pain in his hand and wrist, which his medical consultant believes is in relation to the procedure he underwent in 2023.

“As a result his medical team have confirmed that he will not race tomorrow and he will undergo a procedure to rectify these issues before focusing on his recovery.”

That left Aston Martin with just one car on the grid, Fernando Alonso racing to ninth place as he scored his first points of the F1 2025 World Championship.

Croft is baffled that it came to that.

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“I don’t buy the [claim that] ‘we’ve been monitoring this for six weeks’,” he told Sky F1‘s The F1 Show.

“If they’ve been monitoring it for six weeks, then surely for the good of the team they wouldn’t have put Lance into the car in qualifying if it’s got to a point whereby he might not be fit enough to do the race. They’d bring Drugovich in.”

He added: “Lance puts in a lap that takes him P7 in Q1. He’s obviously fit enough to drive well at some stage during that qualifying session.”

However, team boss Mike Krack did explain this when he spoke with the media, including PlanetF1.com, in the wake of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.

“It has been known already,” he continued. “The whole thing started in 2023, if you guys remember, there was injuries, and over the last weeks, there was the mention of pain, or reducing time in pain.

“You do not ask the driver every five minutes: ‘Do you have pain?’

“You have a chat here with a physio, or hear a chat, and you understand that there are some small issues and the driver.

“We have seen it with Lance in 2023 when he fought his way back. They [drivers] want to drive, they don’t want to be out.

“So very often, I think, they drive with probably more pain than they would even admit to be able to drive, because this is what they love to do.

“So over the last weeks, there was a mention here and there, but you’re never aware how much it is. And then the weekend, I think he was just getting too much.

“I think at the end of the day, Saturday after qualifying, Lance and his team decided it would be better to go and check, go and check again, and then the recommendation was better not to race.”

Croft also weighed in Stroll’s alleged meltdown after qualifying, with the driver said to have ‘lost his temper’. The BBC reported there was ‘word going around the paddock that Stroll had broken things in the garage and sworn at team members’.

Croft said he’d heard similar reports, even going as far as to claim Stroll broke a helmet when he threw it against a wall.

“I understand that a helmet was thrown, to the extent that the helmet might have been damaged, such was the force that it hit the wall,” Croft said. “There was a lot of shouting and swearing going on as well.

“Lance has got form for punching walls before, albeit partition walls that wouldn’t necessarily hurt him. I’ve heard that before in his time at Aston Martin.”

This was denied by Harry Rush, a mechanic on Stroll’s side of the garage.

“Swore at team members? Absolutely not true,” Rush wrote on an Instagram story.

Aston Martin have yet to reveal a timeframe for Stroll’s return to the paddock, although PlanetF1.com understands the Canadian has already undergone a procedure on his hand that was carried out by Dr Xavier Mir, who helped Stroll following his 2023 injury.

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