The team is in Miami for the sixth round of the 2024 Formula One World Championship. Get the latest thoughts from Lance and Fernando following the Miami Grand Prix.
After a difficult weekend, two points were secured at the Miami Grand Prix after Fernando made up a number of places from his starting position. Lance had a challenging race after his strategy was compromised by a Safety Car period.
Sunday round-up and reaction
Another points finish for the team as Fernando comes home P9 in The Magic City.
Lance began the Miami Grand Prix in P11 while Fernando started P15. The drivers opted for different tyre strategies, with Lance starting on the Medium tyre and Fernando choosing Hards.
Fernando made up three places on the opening lap in a strong start to the Miami Grand Prix.
Lance's only pitstop of the race came at the end of lap 11 when he switched to Hards.
While Fernando was able to take advantage of the Safety Car period and changed to Medium tyres on lap 22, Lance had pitted a few laps prior, resulting in a compromised strategy.
In the closing stages of the race, Lance made a series of overtakes. However, an unfortunate penalty meant he finished P17.
#18 | Lance Stroll | Race
"It wasn't a great race today. We went for an early stop and then a few laps later the Safety Car was called, so the cars that had stayed out benefitted heavily from that. That really compromised our strategy. From that point I managed to pass a few cars and crossed the finish line in P13, but was then penalised for my pass on [Alex] Albon. We'll go through the onboards later, but it feels like a strange penalty. We'll be working hard over the next couple of weeks to find some more pace in the car for Imola."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Race
"After a difficult day yesterday, it was good to come away from this weekend with some points for the team. We got a bit lucky with the timing of the Virtual Safety Car and then the full Safety Car bunching the field up. We then took this opportunity to fit the Medium tyres. This changed our strategy a little bit and allowed us to have some good battles out there.
"I enjoyed the racing and it seems we showed a little more performance in the race than we did in Qualifying. We do have some work to do to improve our performance in the next couple of races. I am happy for Lando [Norris]. It's always special to secure your first win."
Mike Krack | Team Principal
"Two hard-earned points from a race that was dominated by track position and traffic. Our starting positions hurt us today. Fernando's race was a straightforward one-stopper and the timing of the Virtual Safety Car proved helpful as he was suffering with some flat spots on his Hard tyres. He eventually was able to progress to P9. With Lance, we maybe pitted a bit on the early side, trying to undercut Tsunoda, and we never really recovered from the track position we lost. We will learn the lessons ahead of the start of the European season."
Next up
We make our way to Italy for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, which takes place 17-19 May.
Saturday
Lance started the Sprint in P7 and Fernando began P8. After contact for both drivers on the first lap of the Sprint, Lance had to retire.
While it was a tough start to the day, Fernando was able to get back out into the Sprint after pitting for a new front wing, allowing him to gather valuable data for the weekend.
Both drivers had a strong start to Qualifying, safely getting into Q2.
A tight second segment of Qualifying resulted in both Fernando and Lance being knocked out. Lance starts the Miami Grand Prix in P11 and Fernando begins P15.
#18 | Lance Stroll | Sprint & Qualifying
"It's been a frustrating day on track. My Sprint event came to an end on the first lap after contact with other cars. It was an unfortunate incident, but there wasn't a huge amount I could do. In Qualifying, the car just didn't have the pace we needed. It was disappointing to miss out on Q3 by such small margins, but we were struggling to improve throughout Q2 and I didn't have the confidence I needed in the car. We'll try to find a little more pace for tomorrow's race and hopefully we can fight for some points in Miami."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Sprint & Qualifying
"It was a disappointing day for us. Firstly, there was the incident into Turn 1 at the start of the Sprint and then we had a difficult Qualifying session for tomorrow's race. We struggled in Q1 and Q2 and finished in P15 in both sessions. I didn't seem to have much pace and we were just outside of that group fighting for the top ten this time around. We made some set-up changes from the Sprint race to now and it seems these changes didn't work. I think it will be a challenging race tomorrow, but we'll analyse our performance tonight and try to recover some points."
Mike Krack | Team Principal
"We missed the ultimate pace to compete today. The margins are small and Lance just missed out on making it into Q3 with Fernando a couple of tenths further back. We will review tonight and see where we can improve for tomorrow. The Sprint was disappointing with both drivers caught in the middle of a four-car sandwich going into Turn One. The damage to Lance's floor and suspension forced his retirement, while Fernando resumed to give us some valuable learning on the tyres. It will not be easy tomorrow because we saw how difficult it can be to progress here with DRS trains making overtaking very challenging, but we will fight hard to score some points."
Friday
In the first session of the Miami Grand Prix weekend, Lance finished in the top five of Free Practice after a strong final run on Soft tyres.
As it was the weekend's sole Free Practice session, we looked to maximise data capture and setup changes ahead the Sprint sessions.
Both drivers set solid lap times during Sprint Qualifying, with Fernando placing P3 in SQ1.
Lance classified P7 in SQ3 while Fernando placed P8.
#18 | Lance Stroll | Free Practice & Sprint Qualifying
"It was a good Sprint Qualifying, for sure. We chose to run a used Soft tyre in SQ3 and managed to qualify P7, which sets us up well for tomorrow. Our aim will be trying to pick up some points in the Sprint event."
#14 | Fernando Alonso | Free Practice & Sprint Qualifying
"There was not a lot of grip to be found on track today so the conditions were quite tricky for Sprint Qualifying. But it was the same for everybody and we managed to get both cars into Q3 which was the target for today. We haven't done a lot of running on track, so it's a little unknown heading into the Sprint tomorrow. We'll see what we can do and try to have some fun."
Sprinting in the Sunshine State Sprinting in the Sunshine State
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