Zak Mauger/Motorsport Images
Wrist injury puts Stroll in doubt for season opener
Aston Martin Racing is uncertain as to whether Lance Stroll will be available for the Bahrain Grand Prix because of the injury to his wrist.
A training accident on his bicycle earlier this week ruled Stroll out of the pre-season test in Bahrain that got underway on Thursday. Team principal Mike Krack insists that decision was “precautionary” but says he can’t confirm at this stage whether the injury will force the Canadian to miss the first round of the season at the same venue.
“He was training, trying to work on his fitness last week, he was cycling,” Krack said. "He had a small incident and hurt himself and for precautionary reasons we decided it’s better to wait a little bit and be ready next week.
“This is his personal thing (not to say more). So he is injured on the hand, the wrist, but I don’t want to go into detail -- this is privacy.”
When pushed on Stroll’s availability for the opening race in a week’s time, Krack responded, “We will let you know in time” but suggests Felipe Drugovich could be in line for more testing.
“He did the morning session today so this is also something we have to do as a team to cover eventualities -- we have not made the final decision yet on where we go the next few days. We will do this in the next hours.”
Drugovich completed 40 laps on the first morning of testing before handing over to Fernando Alonso and was happy with his first outing, but admits he doesn’t expect to know if either he or fellow Aston Martin reserve Stoffel Vandoorne will be required to race until next week.
“Lots of tests for the team, exciting for me,” Drugovich said. “I’m really here! Obviously I wish a speedy recovery to Lance but while I’m here I’m having fun and trying to help the team.
“They are evaluating every day and I can’t say much more than that. I think me and Stoffel were both down to come to this race, to Bahrain, so I think we will both be here and we will both be ready if Lance is not able to recover. But I think it will be a choice for the team just before the weekend, and it will probably be quite a quick one because as Lance is recovering, probably (it won’t be) until next week until we make a decision.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
Read Chris Medland's articles
Latest News
Comments
Comments are disabled until you accept Social Networking Cookies. Update cookie preferences
If the dialog doesn't appear, ad-blockers are often the cause; try disabling yours or see our Social Features Support.