Lance Stroll is absent from the tests
Important news before the test drives reached us yesterday followingnoon from Aston Martin. Lance Stroll will not be used for the three days because he sustained injuries in a bicycle accident.
That happened to his current teammate Fernando Alonso two years ago, who at least didn’t miss a race. Stroll hopes to be fit for the season opener, but with that taking place next week it remains to be seen if he will be fit to race by then.
With Formula E world champion Stoffel Vandoorne and Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich, Aston Martin might fall back on two drivers.
We wish Lance Stroll a speedy recovery. You can find more information regarding this here.
Who replaces him?
It is still unclear how Aston Martin will react to the news. Stroll was scheduled to test on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and share the cockpit with Alonso. In theory, the Spaniard might now compete alone every three days. This would certainly be very good for him, since 1.5 days per driver is not exactly a lot. And Aston Martin might benefit from good feedback from a two-time world champion.
On the other hand, it certainly wouldn’t be amiss if a possible replacement driver would collect a few more kilometers before the start of the season.
At least that would be Felipe Drugovich during the tests, because Stoffel Vandoorne has no time: The fifth round of the Formula E season takes place in Cape Town at the weekend, where he will be at the start for DS Penkse. The Belgian has nothing on the calendar for the start of the season.
Parallele zu Fernando Alonso
I had just mentioned it: Teammate Fernando Alonso, of all people, was caught in a bicycle accident two years ago. But while there is no more precise information regarding Stroll’s injuries, the Spaniard was pretty badly hit at the time.
Alonso had broken his jaw, among other things, and had to undergo surgery. Luckily for him, he still had a lot more time before the test drives. Although his accident happened in mid-February, the test drives in 2021 did not start until March 12th. The first race of the season took place on March 28th, regarding a month and a half following the accident.
Stroll only has two weeks to recover before the start.
Getting ready for the test drives
Lando Norris practices before the upcoming test drives. Maybe someone should tell him that these are in Bahrain, not Spa-Francorchamps 😉
The tests are getting closer
We still have to sleep twice before we finally get to see moving cars once more. Although Ferrari made our time a bit easier at its launch, seeing all the cars together for a first showdown is something else once more.
The time until then bridges today at this point Norman Fischer, who warmly welcomes you to the ticker. If you have any questions, suggestions or complaints, you can use our contact form. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, and if you have any questions, you can also use our Twitter hashtag #FragMST. Here we go!
Here you can read yesterday’s ticker once more.