Pedro De La Rosa admits 24-year-old F1 driver has suffered so much bad luck recently

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Pedro De La Rosa has admitted that he can’t believe how much bad luck Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll has suffered recently.

De La Rosa was speaking on the F1 Nation Podcast ahead of a Sprint weekend in Qatar.

With just six weekends of racing left, there are battles up and down the grid that will create plenty of excitement.

That is, except at the very front of the grid where Max Verstappen will almost certainly wrap up the title this weekend.

One team who know they need to show some improvement over the next few races is Aston Martin.

They’ve gone from being the best of the rest at the start of the year to looking over their shoulder to stay in fourth place ahead of McLaren.

Fernando Alonso is getting the absolute most out of his car and will be disappointed that his run of podium finishes has ended.

However, his teammate Lance Stroll has never been able to keep up with him this year and Pedro De La Rosa has lamented his recent bad luck.

The Canadian has Alpine driver Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon chasing him down for a spot in the top ten in the standings.

Two points finishes in the last seven races aren’t good enough for a driver in one of the quicker cars on the grid.

De La Rosa says Stroll has been unlucky

Speaking about the 24-year-old, De La Rosa said: “Well I mean there was obviously a concern about the rear wing and that’s why the team decided to stop him.

“It was OK on Fernando’s [Alonso] car but it was not OK on Lance’s [Stroll].

“He’s really had a run of bad luck in the past few races but we will see. I mean it’s what it is you know, at the end of the day there are a lot of teams pushing for development.

“McLaren has made a huge step and we shouldn’t underestimate the rest like Mercedes and Ferrari.

“There will be circuits which are stronger than others and definitely I thought eighth place [for Alonso] might sound not too spectacular but actually he was very close to the Mercedes and Ferrari in the fight.”

De La Rosa does have a connection to Aston Martin as a brand ambassador which may be why he has sympathy for Stroll.

However, he’s also not a driver anywhere near the level expected of someone who was in a car at the start of the season that was regularly scoring podiums.

Lawrence Stroll’s role at the top of the team means it’s unlikely that Lance will be in any danger of losing his seat any time soon.

But there will come a point when Fernando Alonso eventually retires and right now Stroll doesn’t look ready to step up and lead the team when that happens.