Lance Stroll has blamed his race-ending Monaco Grand Prix crash on his Honda Formula 1 engine pushing him into the wall.
Stroll was running 16th on lap 57, 18 seconds away from the points-paying positions, when he went straight on at Antony Noghes corner and hit the Tecpro barrier.
The Aston Martin driver made it clear that he felt like his powertrain was to blame for his loss of control.
“We were just getting to the end of the race, and then we had some engine braking issues throughout the whole race,” Stroll said. “All season we’ve been having engine braking issues, some corners it’s pushing, some corners it’s pulling, and it’s doing different things all the time. So on that particular corner and lap it just pushed me into the wall, like the throttle pedal was 50% open.”
Coincidentally, the track surface was breaking up ahead of Antony Noghes, but Stroll didn’t believe it caused his predicament.
“I didn’t feel that being the problem; I just had the engine pushing me into the wall, like the throttle pedal stuck,” he insisted.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
Both Aston Martin racers have been complaining about driveability issues, with Fernando Alonso frequently describing those as “random downshifts”.
The issue is gearbox-related but occurs within the wider power unit context, after Aston Martin switched from Mercedes customer engines to Honda works powertrains and started making its own gearboxes.
On Thursday, Alonso cautioned that there would be consequences if this happened in the narrow streets of Monaco – and the Spanish veteran did hit the wall in Free Practice 1 after losing control coming into the chicane, with his warning further vindicated by Stroll’s Sunday accident.
But, when speaking to the media after the race, team ambassador Pedro de la Rosa suggested Stroll’s shunt was merely down to the Canadian driver pushing too hard.
“The fact that Lance actually crashed just highlights that our drivers never give up,” de la Rosa said. “Even with a very difficult car, with inconsistencies on the deceleration phase of the corner, which we’ve been suffering all weekend, both drivers were pushing to the very, very limit. That is really the most incredible thing.
Pedro de la Rosa of Spain, Aston Martin F1 Team
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“We lost one car – but just one car – because the driver was pushing no matter the difficulties he was experiencing.”
However, when Motorsport brought up Stroll’s comments about ‘the engine pushing him into the wall’, de la Rosa hinted at another instance of the “random downshift” issue – albeit perhaps its most obvious occurrence yet.
“Well, we’re experiencing inconsistencies on the deceleration phase,” the Spaniard replied. “I would not like to give more details on that, because analysis is still ongoing, but there are definitely things that are not helping the drivers push to the limit. And when they do, if the whole deceleration process doesn’t go as expected, you can end up in the wall. And that’s what exactly happened to Lance.
“So, Honda and ourselves are doing an analysis of the situation, coming back with different solutions, different maps for the next race. But it’s a complex issue. When you’re talking about engine and gearbox together, you’re working as a whole. It’s not as simple as that, especially this season, with the new regulations and with this small combustion engine with a very big turbo engine.”
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