25-year-old driver complains car is ‘super snappy’ during Bahrain Grand Prix practice

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Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll wasn’t particularly happy with his car during the first practice session in Bahrain on Thursday afternoon.

All 20 cars took to the track for the first time this weekend and had to deal with some very tricky conditions.

Lance Stroll’s comments were picked up by Sky Sports F1 and former world champion Damon Hill explained what might have been going wrong for the Canadian.

Stroll struggles with Aston Martin in Bahrain GP practice

Each of the 10 teams in the F1 paddock has just three hours of running to build on what they learned in pre-season about their new cars before qualifying.

They’re each trying to work out their best set-ups before needing to set the fastest time possible on Friday afternoon.

Many of the teams focused on long runs throughout testing and that should give them a good indication of how Saturday’s race is going to go.

Aston Martin looked very good at times during pre-season, with Anthony Davidson admitting at one point they were sharper than Red Bull.

However, Lance Stroll was complaining that his Aston Martin was really difficult to drive at exactly the same point in the track during practice in Bahrain.

The 25-year-old ended up finishing 14^th in FP1 although it’s hard to read too much into the times set.

Daniel Ricciardo, fresh from being tipped for a couple of podiums this year, was fastest during the season’s opening session.

Hill explains Stroll issues going into turn one

Talking on the radio to his team, Stroll said: “The car is super snappy in turns one and two, oh my god, horrendous.”

On commentary, Hill explained: “I don’t think he’s alone. It seems to me that this wind is upsetting everybody’s cars and I think they’re getting caught out with the change of aero as they go around the corner.

“I’m sure the engineers will be saying that. The grandstands protect you and then suddenly you get exposed against the crosswind, it’s not consistent.

“It’s a sign that their aero is not robust, the way they manage the airflow across is not robust enough to protect the downforce and the vacuum under the car.”

Stroll will be happy to know that he wasn’t the only driver to have issues during practice in Bahrain, but his massive lock up going into the opening right-hander did force him to pit for new tyres.

There’s pressure on the Canadian to perform this season and close the gap to Fernando Alonso.

That’s going to be an incredibly difficult job given his two decades of experience in the sport.

His future may not be at risk, but Aston Martin have lofty ambitions and he has to match those.