The Aston Martin admission after completely silent Lance Stroll interview

Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack could understand a “certain level of frustration” from Lance Stroll following the Italian Grand Prix.

While Stroll is known to sometimes keep his answers to reporters on the short side, that was taken to the extreme after the race at Monza. Stroll would remain completely silent more than once when faced with a question. Krack explained how a “pit gantry” issue and a strategy gamble which failed to pay off, meant it was a frustrating Grand Prix for Stroll.

Pit-stop and strategy issue for Lance Stroll at Monza

From 16th on the grid, Stroll finished 18th at Monza, the last of the classified runners. It was a frustrating afternoon for team and driver, both having seen an impressive upturn in recent form. Neither Aston Martin driver finished the race, as Fernando Alonso retired due to a suspension failure.

Stroll took part in the traditional media pen interviews post-race, but when asked about his incident with Esteban Ocon – who had five seconds added to his race time for forcing Stroll off the track – Stroll stayed completely silent. On the third attempt for comment on the topic, he replied: “I don’t have anything to say about it.”

Stroll did not reply when asked for any further comments on his race. He did give a “yep” on strategy and a “not much” on positives to take away from Monza.

Starting on hard tyres, Stroll had contested much of the race on that compound ahead of his sole pit stop.

Following the race, told by media that Stroll had not been very chatty at all in his interview, Krack was asked if he could shed some light on why.

“We have an issue on the pit gantry that we need to understand,” Krack revealed.

“We have downloaded now the log data, and this is another thing that we will have to deal with.”

He added: “I think with these situations, when you have a race with almost no degradation, and you start from the back, you have to hope for opportunities.

“And you know, we get always safety cars when we have done our pit stop, so we said, ‘Let’s wait until the safety car comes this time’, and then it doesn’t come.

“So, you know, it is normal that then you are frustrated because you are fighting for nothing, although you’re pushing to the limit. So I can understand a certain level of frustration.”

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll head-to-head in F1 2025

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Aston Martin is a team on the rise in F1 2025. Three double-points finishes in the last five grands prix has placed the team right back into contention for P5 in the Constructors’ Championship.

Stroll meanwhile is two points ahead of Alonso, the two-time World Champion, in the Drivers’ Championship.

Yet, when Aston Martin do have an off-weekend – like at Spa and Monza – it tends to be a highly frustrating one.

“We take it event by event, try to maximize every event,” said Krack.

“Today, as I said, with very low degradation, you cannot really undercut. You cannot really overcut. So you have to try and make the most of opportunities that didn’t present themselves.”

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