Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll reveals why he will not be pushed around in F1

Aston Martin

Aston Martin owner Stroll reveals why he will not be pushed around in F1

Aston Martin has been at the centre of controversies since Stroll's takeover

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Friday 16 July 2021 09:30

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Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll has insisted he is not a man to be pushed around in F1 as it will never deliver the success he is demanding.

Since Stroll took the helm at the Silverstone-based team it has become embroiled in a dispute over car design - during its former guise as Racing Point - before being highly outspoken against the FIA following this year's aerodynamic changes.

Asked if he needed to be 'a disruptor' to find success in F1, Stroll replied: "I don't think it's [just] F1. There are obviously a lot of very strong personalities and a lot of very smart people.

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"If you're going to be a push-around, for lack of a better word, I don't think you're going to succeed in this sport or in any other sport.

"I don't know if I've been a disruptor. I've stood for what I believed to be correct.

"I've not made a significant investment in this company not to be fighting for world championships, so we're going to do whatever it takes, in the rules obviously.

"Being a gentleman, I don't think we've done anything [different compared to] any other team that's trying to build a fantastic organisation, and I speak out on when I think something is wrong."

No coincidence Mercedes has slipped to now fighting for title

After nine races this season Aston Martin lies sixth in the constructors' standings, almost 100 points adrift of third-placed McLaren despite competing for the best-of-the-rest tag behind Mercedes and Red Bull throughout last year.

The slow start to the championship has been unsurprising for Stroll, however, who has referred back to the loss of downforce enforced by the FIA by the introduction of new regulations which have also drastically harmed Mercedes.

"As you all know this year was a very controversial year with the aerodynamic regulations and the cut in the floor," he added.

"You're all smart enough to have done your own simulations and calculations that the two low-rake cars, us and Mercedes, lost approximately a second per lap, at some tracks 1.2secs, at some tracks 1.7secs depending on the length of the track.

"So it's no coincidence that Mercedes is fighting for a championship that last year, and many years before, they easily won, and the same sadly has happened to us.

"So with the change in the regulations, and I don't want to make any further comment on why they were changed, that's severely penalised us and Mercedes.

"That is the reason for the decrease in performance from this year to last year."