Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack has downplayed the garage spat that engulfed Lance Stroll’s Qatar Grand Prix weekend.
Stroll was unable to escape the Q1 drop zone in qualifying on Friday evening, condemning him to an elimination from the first segment for the fourth consecutive round.
The Canadian visibly showed his anguish upon returning to the garage by firstly throwing his steering wheel away and then shoving trainer Henry Howe out of the way.
That was followed by a brief seven-word interview with the official broadcaster, which included the use of foul language.
However, Krack believes Stroll’s outburst has been blown out of proportion, claiming elite athletes should command more respect from the outside world in trying times.
“The thing is, you accumulate [frustration when] delivering below your own expectations and then frustration comes out at one point,” Krack said on Sunday.
“I said, you take a football player that is taken off the pitch, he doesn’t want to high five to the manager or he throws the jersey or he throws the water bottles, we have seen that quite a lot.
“And to be honest, I always try to delay this as much as possible to just try and get rid of the adrenaline.
“But I’m sure we run maybe 10 to 20 times less adrenaline on the pit wall than the drivers do but you put the microphone straight away in front of them or you gauge every reaction that they do.
“So I think emotions are what we want from sportsmen. If they react we judge them quickly. Is this right? Is this wrong? I think we need to be careful with that.
“We want to see it because then we’ll have something to talk about. When it goes one step too far, then people like to sit down on the sofa or in an air conditioning room and say ‘this is too much’ or ‘you cannot do that’.
“I think we need to have a bit more respect for the drivers and high elite sportsmen I would say.”
The FIA has since announced that it’s investigating Stroll for “several incidents that may have contravened FIA rules, policies and procedures during the Qatar Grand Prix”.
But, recounting the incident when asked to give his version of events on Saturday, Stroll insisted that he and his trainer were “good” again.
“He’s a bro. We go through the frustrations together and we ride together, so we’re cool,” he continued.
The Qatar GP weekend marked a continuation of Stroll’s recent struggles, with the ex-Williams racer being denied his first points since the summer break by a time penalty for exceeding track limits.
“We’re in a rut and it’s not getting better,” he conceded.
“Frustration is just, I think, in the whole group right now. I mean, we want to do better, we want to get better, but it’s just a struggle right now.”
Expanding on his troubles, Stroll admits that he hasn’t been comfortable with Aston Martin’s AMR23 since July’s Austrian Grand Prix – the last occasion he beat team-mate Fernando Alonso in a competitive session.
“I’m just struggling with the car and just getting to grips with the balance,” he explained. “I’m just not able to extract performance from it right now, which is just difficult and frustrating.”
He added: “There’s high levels of understeer, snap oversteer, a lack of grip. I feel like I can’t really lean on the car and drive it with confidence without dealing with snaps and understeer and just a balance that I really don’t particularly enjoy driving.”
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