Stroll acknowledges frustration over wrist issue

Lance Stroll says he wants to keep his medical situation surrounding his wrist private ahead of his return at the Canadian Grand Prix, but admits he was frustrated in the garage post-qualifying in Spain.

The Canadian withdrew from the Spanish Grand Prix after being eliminated in Q2, citing medical advice due to pain in wrists that he originally injured in 2023. Aston Martin says Stroll underwent another procedure soon after his withdrawal, and after testing a previous car in France earlier this week he was cleared to return in Montreal, where he was coy on his injury and how it was aggravated.

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“It was bothering me for a few weeks over Imola, Monaco and then Barcelona was just really brutal throughout the weekend,” Stroll said. “I got the procedure done and drove this week and I was feeling pretty good, so I'm confident [I’ll be OK].

“It's just the old injury that I had with it a couple years ago. Just started to bug me again and… yeah… so… just got it sorted.

“As an athlete in any sport I think you're always trying to push through pain/discomfort as much as you can to try and get a good result at the end of the weekend. In that situation I was struggling and I was trying to push through it but I just didn't feel sensible to push anymore – it felt like the damage was getting worse and I needed to do something more serious about it.

“That's the thing – I don't really want to get into detail about what I had to do and how I had to do it, because it's just my medical privacy and I like to keep that kind of confidential.

“But all I can say for sure is I'm feeling a lot better. I'm looking forward to the race weekend. Being here in Montreal is always special, good memories coming here racing every year, good results over the years – point-scoring results – so just love coming back here racing in front of the home crowd and just looking forward to the weekend.”

Following his withdrawal in Spain, Aston Martin acknowledged Stroll was frustrated after qualifying, but did not state that it was linked to his needing to pull out of the race. Stroll says it was the realization of how bad the situation was.

“Yeah I was frustrated, for sure. Frustrated about my wrist and the last three races from Imola, and it was just inhibiting my driving. So I knew that Sunday was going to be tricky, probably impossible, and at that point I was pretty frustrated about it.”