By Admin 
Following the Singapore GP, Aston Martin Formula One team members, including its driver, Lance Stroll, flew down to Hyderabad to visit the campus of the team’s technical partner – Cognizant. In an exclusive interaction with The Hindu, Stroll spoke about the 2025 season, the upcoming regulation changes, the team’s performance and his partnership with Fernando Alonso.
How has the season been for you?
I think it’s been good. As a team, we’re not where we want to be. We’re not as competitive as we want to be; that’s no secret. But I think there have been some exciting races this year. The first race in Australia, we opened the season with a P6, and then there were a lot of exciting races like Silverstone (British GP) and Zandvoort (Dutch GP); those are a few that come to mind. Budapest was another weekend where we were really competitive as a team, and both cars were in the points. It has been an eventful year with some ups and downs, which there always are in every Formula 1 season. Six more races to go, and we will see what we can do.
What were the team’s expectations at the beginning of the year, and how do you plan to approach the last few races now?
It is always hard to have expectations coming into a season because you never really know where you’re going to be. You kind of just figure it out with the first race and then go from there. We have tried to bring some upgrades to the car and improve it throughout the course of the season, but it’s been a challenging year to do that because there is so much focus and energy going into next year. During this phase of the upcoming regulation, our focus is directed at next year, and we are limiting our time on this year’s car.
Still, we are going to try and see what we can do in the last six races, pick up points where we can, make the car competitive, execute properly, capitalise, and score.
You share the garage with Fernando Alonso. Having somebody as strong as Alonso, how does it impact your strategy and preparation for the race?
It doesn’t change much from my side. I have been doing this for ten years now, and I have a good idea of what I need from the car and from myself to be in the best position to succeed. But I respect his ability. There are tracks like Singapore where he has won multiple times, and every time we go there, since being teammates the last few years, he has been driving at an incredibly high level. To have that kind of commitment and motivation every year, to put your body and mind through it mentally, physically, and technically, I really admire that. Being alongside him has definitely improved my game. Over the last few years, I have seen things I didn’t know were possible. It’s pushed me to do better and work on aspects I didn’t even think I needed to.
Aston Martin F1 has roped in Adrian Newey as the Technical Director. With the regulation changes coming next year, how do you see his role evolving?
Well, he has a good track record, that’s all I know. Hopefully that continues. Adrian’s won so many championships and has an incredible history in Formula 1. What I have noticed in the time he’s been at the factory is how he has been able to bring a team together and create new ideas. He instils a new spirit in the team, encouraging everyone to think bigger and extract more out of themselves. I think that’s one of Adrian’s biggest strengths.
With a largely technical organisation like Cognizant being part of AMF1, how does that partnership work? Do they communicate directly with you regarding race strategy, or is it with the overall team?
It’s with the team. There are so many people involved every weekend, but for a driver, it’s important to keep things simple. You have a race engineer and a performance engineer, and during a race weekend, that’s your main line of communication when it comes to strategy, car setup, overlaying data, or talking about driving craft. So really, it’s mainly between me, my engineer, and my performance engineer.
The F1 market in India is still small but growing every year. How do you see the sport evolving in a country like India?
Well, it’s a huge population, so of course it’s a big market. There were races held here before my time, but I think there’s definitely potential for the future.