The timing of Stroll’s late F1 Spanish GP withdrawal

Details have emerged of Lance Stroll’s absence for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix grid as the Canadian battled worsening pain in his right hand and wrist.

Late on Saturday night, hours after Stroll qualified 14th for the Barcelona race, Aston Martin released a statement saying its driver would not take part in the race, meaning Fernando Alonso is the sole Aston driver on the grid of 19 cars.

“Over the course of the past six weeks Lance has been experiencing pain in his hand and wrist, which his medical consultant believes is in relation to the procedure he underwent in 2023,” Aston Martin said.

“As a result his medical team have confirmed that he will not race tomorrow and he will undergo a procedure to rectify these issues before focusing on his recovery.”

What happened to Lance Stroll?

The procedure Aston is referring to is the surgery to his wrist following a cycling accident on the eve of the 2023 season. A week before Bahrain’s 2023 pre-season test, Stroll sustained injuries during a training ride in Malaga, including fractures in both wrists as well as a broken toe. Stroll still took part in the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix and battled through the pain to take sixth.

It has now emerged that over the past six weeks Stroll started suffering from chronic pain in the same hand and wrist. The exact medical details are part of the private domain, but in general, having recurring pain, even years after having pins inserted, is not entirely uncommon and could be caused by a variety of neurological reasons.

Stroll’s condition is understood to have fluctuated over the past few race weekends, but it worsened after Spanish GP qualifying as he sought medical attention to provide some relief. As the team announced, Stroll will now undergo a medical procedure to fix the issue.

Why did Aston Martin not put a reserve driver in?

One recurring question is why Stroll persisted with his injury into qualifying only to then drop out of the race, meaning Aston Martin cannot put another driver in his car. Its designated reserve driver Felipe Drugovich is on site in Barcelona and could have been eligible to make his race debut if he had competed in qualifying, but driver changes after qualifying are not allowed by the FIA’s sporting regulations.

The reasons for Stroll remaining in the car until and including qualifying are not all that different to the tenacity he showed while driving to sixth in Bahrain in 2023 with two broken wrists and a fractured toe. Like any racing driver Stroll was desperate to keep trying until the very last moment, hoping he would be able to complete the race as he has done in Imola and Monaco.

In Bahrain he was rewarded for that tenacity with sixth, and in Barcelona qualifying Stroll finished in the top 10 in Q1, suggesting he was still able to drive at the limit despite his condition. He then qualified 14th in Q2, but then realised it would be best to get medical attention.

“I think everybody will remember 2023 when Lance had his issues after the mountain bike incident, where he was in terrible pain,” Aston Martin’s head of trackside engineering Mike Krack told SiriusXM.

“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 it was getting too much. He went very quickly to have further checks done and the decision was taken that it is better for him not to race.

“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. I always have to laugh when people question the commitment. 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.”

Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images via Getty Images

Why was Aston Martin still warned by the FIA?

Stroll’s team still received a warning by the FIA for the driver missing the mandatory weigh-in immediately after qualifying, as required for sporting fairness as part of the rules. Stroll attended the weigh-in and the media pen afterwards, before heading to the medical centre for further evaluation, but drivers are normally weighed straight after qualifying to ensure their cars comply with the minimum weight limit.

The race stewards showed sympathy for his medical condition, but still handed Aston Martin a warning for not informing the FIA sooner of what was happening, which the team duly apologised for.

“We accept that the reason for the failure to comply was an unexpected and serious intervening medical condition,” the race stewards wrote. “The health of the driver is of course paramount. Having said that, given the importance of the weighing procedure, the team ought to have immediately informed the relevant FIA delegates of the situation so that the appropriate assistance could have been rendered and any required observation of the driver could have been carried out with the benefit of the FIA team.

“We accordingly administer a warning to the team for the future to ensure that the FIA delegate(s) are promptly informed of any unforeseen circumstances which might delay/prevent the driver from complying with the regulations.”

When will Stroll be back in the car?

The next F1 race weekend takes place in two weeks’ time at the Canadian Grand Prix, Stroll’s home race. Given his desire to remain in the car – both in 2023 and over the past six weeks – Stroll will naturally be keen to be fighting fit for his home event in Montreal and be in the car in time for Friday practice on 13 June.

But it is too early to make a prognosis on whether that timeline is realistic or not, the team says. “I’m an engineer, I’m not a doctor or medical staff so I cannot really say,” Krack added.

“I think in such situations you need to be respectful of people’s conditions and let the experts take the decisions, together with Lance and his staff. We will wait what they say. We will wait to see how the situation develops and then we will take the appropriate decisions.

“He will have some further tests over the next days and then we will see how we go on about it.”