Fernando Alonso has hailed his new team mate Lance Stroll as a potential future world champion.
The pair are partners at Aston Martin, which is co-owned by Lawrence Stroll, Lance’s father.
Alonso is embarking on his 20th season and still seeking his third world championship crown. At 41, he is prepared to accept the possibility that his latest team might not be able to give him a shot at the title before he retires.
“I will still be very proud if the team wins without me in the car,” he said in an interview for the team’s website. “I will be very proud of the process and my contribution to the project.
“In Lance, the team has a driver who is super young, super talented and has the possibility to be world champion. To see him achieve that and have played a part in that, whether that’s behind the wheel or not, will be special for me.”
Stroll’s best world championship result to date is 11th place with his current team in 2020, three years after he arrived in F1 with Williams. However his history with Alonso began long before that, when the pair were contracted to Ferrari.
“I’ve known Lance for 11 years,” said Alonso. “We met in 2012 when I was at Ferrari – he was in the Ferrari Academy. And I’ve known his father, Lawrence, for many years. He’s a great friend of mine. I’ve been to his house in Canada a few times, doing different sports and enjoying time together.”
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Asked by his team “just how underrated is Lance”, Alonso responded: “He has the speed, and he has the talent. He has shown it many times, especially in wet conditions.
“I remember Lance’s pole position in Turkey [in 2020] and some of his other excellent performances in the wet; to perform at that level in difficult conditions you have to have a special feeling with the car.”
Alonso said he is “not thinking about timeframes and how long it will take the team to win races” after joining the outfit which placed seventh in the world championship for the last two seasons.
“I will take it race by race, season by season. What’s important is that we keep making progress.
“We need to feel happy with each other and help each other: Aston Martin helping me to achieve the results and the targets that I have and me helping the team to progress every race, every year, to get closer and closer to the top positions.
“I will use all my experience and all my knowledge to help the team shortcut the time that is needed to become World Champions. Will I be behind the steering wheel when that time comes? Nobody knows. It’s impossible to predict. But what is certain is that I will try my best.”
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