Stroll probably hid extent of pain; long-term prognosis unclear

Lance Stroll likely hid how much pain he was in from Aston Martin before having to pull out of the Spanish Grand Prix, and there is not yet a longer-term prognosis of how long he might be out of action for.

The Canadian got out of his car at the end of Q2 – when he had been eliminated – and went straight to his team to seek medical attention for pain in his right hand and wrist. That meant he did not get weighed in the timeframe demanded by the FIA, so he was subject to an investigation that could have led to exclusion from the session, but it was then announced by Aston Martin that Stroll would be withdrawing on medical advice.

According to chief trackside officer Mike Krack, Stroll had alerted the team to his discomfort over the past six weeks but it was not aware how much he was struggling.

“It’s a very unfortunate situation,” Krack told SiriusXM. “I think everybody will remember 2023 when Lance had his issues after the mountain bike incident, where he was in terrible pain. He had a procedure done at the time and over the last weeks he was always mentioning pain and it didn’t go away. It got worse and worse and obviously Lance being a racer, he was probably in much more pain than he was really telling us and his medical team.

“Yesterday we came to a point where at one point it was getting too much. He had further examinations, which was why he was not at the track anymore. He went very quickly to have further checks done and the decision was taken that it is better for him not to race. He will have some further tests over the next days and then we will see how we go on about it."

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Krack says the situation shows how much Stroll wants to be in the car, given he was attempting to drive through the pain barrier until this weekend’s qualifying session proved too much.

“As I said, drivers are hard and racers. We have seen in 2023 how tough he was and I’m sure he was in much more pain than he was telling us," Krack said.

“I always have to laugh when people question the commitment. I have not met many drivers who are more committed to driving. He desperately wants to drive and to go to that point after qualifying and say, ‘I need to get myself checked,’ that shows how hard these guys are.”

While Stroll will not race in Spain and is set for further examinations, Krack doesn’t know if he will be fit to return at the next event in Canada or out for a longer period of time.

“I’m an engineer, I’m not a doctor or medical staff so I cannot really say," he said. "I think in such situations you need to be respectful for the people’s conditions and let the experts take the decisions, together with Lance and his staff. We will wait to see how the situation develops and then we will take the appropriate decisions.”