Lance Stroll caused some consternation in the Formula 1 paddock when he insisted that braking and driveability issues were to blame for his Monaco Grand Prix crash – rather than the crumbling track surface at the corner where he went off.
Stroll was running 16th when he ran straight into the outside barrier at the final corner, Anthony Noghes, on lap 57. That eliminated him from the race and prompted a safety car period, at the end of which Charles Leclerc crashed his Ferrari at the same spot, ultimately causing the race to be red-flagged.
The track surface had deteriorated and started to break up at a point where it had already been patched after last month’s Historic Grand Prix. But the race was restarted after the areas had been swept clean, leaving some ambiguity as to the cause of the accident.
Now Aston Martin and engine partner Honda have confirmed it was a technical issue – and made an oblique reference to differences of opinion with the drivers over how best to manage it.
At the time, Stroll reported on the radio: “It was like the throttle was just stuck wide open.”
“Yeah we see it [in the data], Lance,” replied race engineer Gary Gannon.
“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,” Stroll told reporters later.
“So on that particular corner and lap it just pushed me into the wall, like the throttle pedal was 50% open.”
Comparison showing Stroll using first gear at time of accident, compared to previous laps
Photo by: Motorsport.com
Driveability has been among the main complaints from Stroll and team-mate Fernando Alonso all season. Fluctuating torque delivery at low revs and a lack of gearbox synchronisation combine to make braking for slow corners a lottery since the drivers experience a feeling that the engine is still pushing even when it is supposed to be contributing to the braking effort.
“Monaco is not the place to have a random downshift, to have rear locking or pushing or something like that, because then you will crash into the wall, and the driver will look stupid,” said Alonso before last weekend’s race.
“We have seen some improvement on driveability,” said Honda chief engineer Shintaro Orihara ahead of the Barcelona Grand Prix.
“But also, let’s say, Lance complained of some kick feeling. So we improved the engine combustion stability, but also we found another challenging point in Monaco to improve. So again, driveability side, also step by step. We improved in combustion, but we found something we need to improve.
“That is, let’s say, torque delivery is a combination between MGU-K torque and engine torque delivery. If we lose the harmony between the torque split into MGU-K torque and engine torque, we get some torque delivery issue. So we found something we can improve in that area.”
Aston Martin chief trackside officer Mike Krack confirmed Stroll’s version of events and revealed that the team had tried to manage the issue via settings changes and asking the drivers to select lower gears for certain corners. But the drivers pushed back against this on the grounds that it made driveability worse.
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin Racing
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
When Stroll tried to use first gear at Antony Noghes, the resulting shove of torque put him slightly off-line and into the loose stones around the deteriorating asphalt.
“We asked the drivers to go with the lowest possible gears on the track, obviously for boost, for regen, just to have the engine in a better place and the energy as well,” said Krack.
“We kept telling the drivers, and they kept telling us we cannot, because the driveability is not good enough. So we had a situation where we were quite stable, and then Lance tried also to go into first [gear] to see what we get.
“And he got another of these, what he describes as a kick feeling, like a push feeling, which put him offline. But at this point, and we speak centimetres here, when you look at the onboard, you can see that there was stones on the tyres, and then there was nowhere to go, like with Charles.
“So I think, considering the feeling that he had at the beginning of the race, I think that is why he concluded it is power unit related or engine related. We think that we have a lot of work to do on the gearbox going forward, and we think that this might be the origin of the issue.”
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