Lance Stroll described his Aston Martin machine as the ‘worst piece of s***’ he has driven after finishing seventh at the British Grand Prix. The Silverstone-based squad deployed a well-executed strategy to get the Canadian fighting at the strong end of the field, but he was powerless to defend from those behind. Stroll’s season to date has epitomised Aston Martin’s struggles in 2025.
The 26-year-old has scored points in chaotic races on Sunday and in Melbourne, but has largely been absent from the fight for points. He has eight finishes of 14th or worse, and missed the Spanish Grand Prix altogether in order to undergo wrist surgery. However, his luck looked to be turning on Sunday. After a bold strategy call, Stroll was running fourth behind the two McLaren drivers and pole-sitter Max Verstappen, and when the latter spun under his own power on a safety car restart, he was promoted onto the provisional podium.
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Unfortunately for Stroll, he didn’t have the confidence required in his AMR25 machine to hold off the chasing pack. Nico Hulkenberg charged through in his Sauber before Lewis Hamilton and a recovering Verstappen also charged through. At the end of the race, the Aston Martin racer lost another position to Pierre Gasly.
After crossing the line in seventh, race engineer Gary Gannon came onto the radio to note: “Yeah. Crazy car to drive, amazing finish.” This comment elicited a strong response from his driver. “Yeah, crazy is an understatement,” Stroll replied. “I mean it’s the worst piece of s*** I have ever driven in my life, to be honest. But it’s okay, seventh."
Stroll wasn’t the only member of the Aston Martin squad unhappy with the execution. Team-mate Fernando Alonso offered up a couple of sassy radio comments after a less-than-favourable strategy outcome.
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“All the people that we lost places [to], they have worse tyres or we just lose places for fun?” he asked race engineer Andrew Vizard. When informed of his Pirelli rubber predicament, Alonso fired back: “Crazy how you never get it right with me.”
The two-time world champion ended the British GP in ninth, adding a valuable two points to Aston Martin’s home-race haul, but the Spaniard was left ruing a missed opportunity. "It seems that P3 was very possible,” Alonso said after the race. “I started P7, finished P9. Nico started P18, finished P3.
"So I think if you get it right, we know in these mixed conditions how good the result could be. It seems that we are not nailing the strategy always on these conditions, especially on my side of the garage. For whatever reason, we are always a little bit slow to react."