As McLaren was making headlines with its team orders at the front of the field during the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix, Aston Martin was having its driver swap drama at the other end of the points-scoring places.
It’s no wonder Aston’s management of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso during the final chapter of Sunday’s race went under the radar, given all the attention that went McLaren’s way, but the Silverstone squad did have an issue of its own that it failed to fully address.
As Fernando Alonso struggled on ageing tyres in the latter stages of the GP, the Spaniard was instructed to wave Lance Stroll by for 10th place with the Canadian on fresher rubber and best placed to have a crack at Yuki Tsunoda’s RB in ninth.
“If he doesn’t get him, we will swap back,” Alosno’s Race Engineer Chris Cronin assured him.
Alas, this didn’t come to pass and Stroll was at odds with his team’s decision-making from the outset.
“I would have passed Fernando, but okay,” he told his Race Engineer Andrew Vizard after Alonso made way to allow Stroll to attack Tsunoda.
After Stroll’s chase proved fruitless, he elected to ignore Vizard’s calls to return Alonso’s favour.
“Lance, suggest you drop back. Let Fernando past. He’s four seconds back.”
The calls went unanswered and the Canadian took the solitary point on offer to the Aston Martin squad.
Alonso, however, took no issue with Stroll’s defiance and the Spaniard’s ire was instead directed toward his team and the strategy it employed at the Hungaroring.
“I didn’t care too much,” Alonso said of Stroll ignoring team orders.
“It was one point for the team . It doesn’t matter which car takes that point. And I think he was trying until the last corner. So, yeah, I think it was the right thing to do.”
The Spaniard started the race on the soft tyre, just as Stroll did, but pitted on Lap 7 of 70, with Stroll coming in later on Lap 13.
This decision prompted Alonso to endure lengthened middle and final stints which he believes played right into the weaknesses of the Aston Martin AMR24.
“Bit surprised when we stopped in lap seven, because we talked this morning, our car is hard on tyres normally,” Alonso explained.
“So if you stop in lap seven, there are 63 laps to do, with one medium and one hard.
“So it was a challenge from that point. And yeah, we didn’t have the peace, and the strategy didn’t help.
“We spoke [Sunday] morning, we have to even a little bit the stints, if not, there is a high price to pay if you do a very long stint with one set of tyres.
“They called me box in lap seven, on lap eight, I knew that the race was over.”
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