Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll behaviour addressed in face of Aston Martin criticism

After Lance Stroll was lambasted for his farcical exit in Brazil, Mike Krack has leapt to the defence of his Aston Martin drivers who have “conducted themselves really well” in the face of criticism.

Although both Aston Martin drivers crashed in the rain in Sunday morning’s qualifying in Brazil, two amongst five drivers, Fernando Alonso bounced back with a heroic drive while his team-mate Stroll’s error opened him up for criticism.

Lance Stroll was lambasted for his formation lap blunder

Having worked furiously to repair the cars in the short break between qualifying and the Grand Prix, Alonso persevered to the end of the 71-lap Grand Prix despite being in pain as his AMR24 bounced around the Interlagos circuit.

“I will finish the race for the mechanics,” the two-time World Champion said. “They did a very good job. But my back is hurting, man. This bouncing is not normal.”

A clip filmed by a fan from the pit and paddock building at Interlagos revealed Alonso struggling to haul himself out of his car in parc ferme, the Spaniard having to rest on the Halo before gingerly walking away from his car.

But while there were heroics from Alonso, from the other side of the garage it could only be called a fiasco.

Stroll lined up on the grid in 10th place after his mechanics repaired his car but it was all for nought as the Canadian locked up on the formation lap.

He came to a halt off the track but on a strip of asphalt between the gravel traps without a scratch on the car, and then a “brain fart”, as Guenther Steiner called it, saw him beach the car all by himself.

Instead of using the asphalt escape road on the edge of the gravel to make his way back onto the track, Stroll did a U-Turn and tried to cross the sodden gravel trap. His Aston Martin became beached and his car was over.

His was vilified by fans and pundits with Steiner claiming he doesn’t even want to be in Formula 1 while Stroll’s former karting rival Jarno Opmeer says the 26-year-old is “not a superstar, not someone you’d expect in Formula 1“.

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Krack though, says it’s unfair to criticise his drivers as they are trying their best even in the face of continued criticism.

“Credit to them both, they’ve conducted themselves really well,” Krack said.

“It’s in tough times, you find out who’s strong. This year, it actually took me a while to realise how strong they have been. When facing the media, they’ve been absolutely rock-solid team players.

“It’s incredibly tough for them because they’re the ones out in front of the microphones, facing the criticism, while we haven’t delivered what we said we would deliver.

“Week in, week out, they’ve stood up and presented a united front. If they’ve been critical, it’s always been fair, and always with the goal of extracting the maximum from the team.

“When you’re fighting for podiums, there are 50 journalists crowded around, but when you’re fighting for P12, it’s maybe one or two. That’s got to be difficult for them – just because they haven’t come away with any silverware doesn’t mean they’ve put in any less of a drive.

“They’ve kept any frustrations in check and realise there’s nothing to gain from negativity.

“To an extent, I’ve been through the same process, and we’ve all become closer because of it. This year has made us closer as a team. That is a massive positive on our journey.”

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