Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso shared a hug in the F1 media pen in Azerbaijan GP as the Canadian says he knew the radio came from him.
It was a mentor moment during a F1 grand prix when Aston Martin’s Alonso conveyed a radio message to his race engineer to pass it on to Stroll with regards to the brake balance. It is not often that a teammate does so during a grand prix.
In fact, Alonso noted that he has been doing this for a while but seemingly F1 hasn’t played those audios as much in the past as they are doing now. For Stroll, when he got the message, he knew that the Spaniard has conveyed this to him.
They also had a moment of hug in the media pen as a good gesture. Alonso was not the only one with a helping hand as prior to his radio message, Stroll told his race engineer that he will not attack him as they both wanted to get through together.
Alonso noted that he could have a go as both eventually passed Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton at ease. They couldn’t stay together for long, though, as the Spaniard ended up fourth with Stroll in seventh ahead of the other Mercedes of George Russell.
“I heard about that message now,” started Stroll to media. “Yeah, he returned the favor! So, that was nice of him. I was told to think about brake balance and change a few things. So now I know it came from him.
“We were both thinking about the long, like the race and he had better pace. I didn’t want to push him in that sense. Like, I felt like it was smart for both of us to manage at the beginning of the race. And then he kind of took off and had a really good pace on the hards.
“And I struggled with balance and didn’t really get into a happy place, made that mistake in 16, that Hamilton got me, and then it felt like it was kind of just a bit tricky to the end of the race. So yeah, got to look into what we could have done a little bit better, but still it was a positive day for the team. Good points, still second in the world championship,” summed up Stroll.
Alonso, meanwhile, is trying to impart as much knowledge he can towards Stroll, who he reckons will be the leader in years to come. “I mean, we talk a lot during the weekend from Friday, already from Thursday, what we both felt here in the past, also in the strategy meeting, what we will do, what will be the plan for each of the cars and things like that.
“So if we feel something in the car during the race that we didn’t spoke about, and there is something new that can help the other car, normally we communicate with the team. And yeah, it has been like this. I know that I will be in the sport for few more years, but not many, and he will lead the team for the next 10 or 15 years.
“So I hope I can help Lance as much as I can in the next few years. I had in the past but only some of my radios were broadcasted! But not this one. For whatever reason now F1 is kind to me,” summed up Alonso.
Here’s Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz clearing the air
Here’s George Russell not happy with Lance Stroll
Here’s Fernando Alonso on passing Carlos Sainz but not Charles Leclerc