Aston Martin’s returning Formula 1 driver Lance Stroll wants to keep the details of his hand and wrist injury private after the procedure he had following his withdrawal from the Spanish Grand Prix.
Speaking in an inevitable press conference appearance on Thursday at his home race in Canada, though, Stroll was unsurprisingly on the receiving end of several questions about the problem that forced his Barcelona absence – and was reticent to say much.
He withdrew mid-event after qualifying 14th in Spain, with Aston Martin citing pain in his right hand and wrist as a legacy of the injury he suffered – and surgery he underwent – during pre-season in 2023.
Stroll had an unspecified procedure early in the week after Spain carried out at a Barcelona clinic by the same team that operated on him back in 2023, led by renowned MotoGP surgeon Dr Xavier Mir.
He has since tested a 2023 Aston Martin at Paul Ricard and is in Montreal having been deemed fit to drive by his medical team.
“It was bothering me for a few weeks,” Stroll said. “Imola, Monaco, then Barcelona was really brutal throughout the weekend.
“I drove this week and was feeling pretty good.”
Stroll specifically referencing the triple-header slightly contradicted a timeline given by his own team that said in Spain it had been bothering him for six weeks.
The intrigue in Stroll’s injury, how bad it was, and how he has been able to recover so quickly if it forced him onto the sidelines, has been at least partly fuelled by a lack of concrete information.
Early on Thursday in Canada, Aston Martin team principal Andy Cowell would not elaborate on certain details like why Stroll had not had the injury dealt with sooner if it could be sorted in time for him to race here.
“We have to respect everybody’s medical privacy in situations like that,” said Cowell.
“Lance is a determined racer.
“He was the most upset that he wasn’t driving Sunday in Barcelona, and has been the most determined person in the whole team to make sure that he’s here this weekend.”
Stroll said he is no longer in pain as he had been previously, but “I don’t want to get into detail about what I had to do and how I had to do it, because it’s just my medical privacy”.
When he did open up more in an otherwise very guarded set of answers relating to the injury, Stroll said: “As an athlete in any sport, I think you’re always trying to push through pain, discomfort as much as you can to try to get a good result at the end of the weekend.
“In that situation I was struggling and I was trying to push through it but it just didn’t feel sensible to push anymore.
“It felt like the damage was getting worse and I needed to do something more serious about it.
“I’m feeling a lot better. I’m looking forward to the race weekend. Being here in Montreal is always special. Good memories of coming here racing every year. Good results over the years, points-scoring results.
“I just love coming back here and racing in front of the home crowd and looking forward to the weekend.”
Cowell gave Stroll a lot of praise for how he has “got stuck into” resolving the issue and trying to return immediately.
He said Stroll had been in the factory “a couple of times” and been on the 2025 car on the simulator, which Cowell said was actually more relevant than trying the 2023 car for real.
Cowell did not directly answer a question about what had happened on Saturday, immediately after qualifying, when Stroll was understood to have got upset in the garage – and it was reported he lost his temper with team members.
“We have to respect the fact that all the drivers are ultra competitive and elite athletes,” said Cowell.
“And the competitive nature means that they want to drive, they want to be in the race.
“Nobody wants to miss a race. But when, for medical reasons, things get too much, then you’ve got to stop. And that was the situation on Saturday in Barcelona.”
When Stroll was asked if he was frustrated in the garage in Barcelona, and if it was related to his wrist, he said in Canada: “Yeah, I was frustrated for sure. Frustrated about my wrist and the last three races from Imola and it was just inhibiting my driving.
“I knew the Sunday was going to be tricky, probably impossible, and at that point I was just pretty frustrated about it.”
