F1 News: Lance Stroll 'as quick as Alonso' as insider delivers 'unbeatable' verdict

Aston Martin

Lance Stroll 'as quick as Alonso' as insider delivers 'unbeatable' verdict

O...kay then

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Thursday 10 September 2026 20:50

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Former F1 driver Pedro de la Rosa has once again gone to bat for Aston Martin star Lance Stroll, as he continues to struggle.

De la Rosa – not coincidentally, an Aston Martin ambassador – has insisted that team owner Lawrence Stroll's son is 'very evenly matched' with his team-mate, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, calling him 'as quick' as the former Renault and Ferrari star when the team delivers a good car.

Alonso famously had a streak of more than 40 grand prix qualifying sessions in a row where he beat his Canadian team-mate (ended in Barcelona this year after nearly two years), and holds a 72-10 head-to-head record going into his home race this weekend.

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Stroll is 45-160 against his team-mates all-time in grand prix qualifying, with a 'winning' qualifying record against one team-mate – 1-0 over Paul di Resta when the Scot filled in for an ill Felipe Massa at the 2017 Hungarian Grand Prix. When Massa was healthy that year, he won the qualifying battle 17-2.

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Aston Martin insider: At many many circuits, in many corners, Stroll is unbeatable

Nevertheless, De la Rosa insisted on Beyond the Grid that Stroll is Alonso's equal in terms of pace, calling him 'unbeatable' in many corners, noting that 'sometimes' he outqualifies the Spanish great.

"Lance is super fast," he said. "I love to watch data because I'm data-driven, and I like to see where one driver is faster than the other. Lance, at many many circuits, in many corners, he's unbeatable. Many types of corners.

"It's not like you can say 'Lance is fast in high speed, Fernando in others', they're both very evenly matched. Lance is extremely quick in all types of corners, it's just that sometimes he's had some mistakes in qualifying or little things that then eventually, if you don't qualify up there, it just compromises the whole weekend.

"That's where he's missing, just sometimes putting everything together in quali – but sometimes he gets it in quali and he outqualifies Fernando. I mean, we're talking about Fernando Alonso, you know? His race pace is impressive as well, he's very good at managing tyres.

"I think Lance is a very underrated driver, and when we improve the car and make it a bit more driver-friendly, we much say it's a very difficult car right now for many reasons, not only chassis but also the engine, whenever the car is driving properly, he's as quick as Fernando. There's no question about that."

Perhaps, after all, there's some internal data that Aston Martin have that they're not sharing with the outside world.