16 June 2023 , 16:38
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Fernando Alonso seemed surprised as he responded to team owner Lawrence Stroll's target set to his son this weekend.
Lance Stroll will be the locals' favourite at the Canadian Grand Prix. Not only is he the only driver flying the flag for the home crowd, but he is racing just a few miles away from where he was born.
He currently sits eighth in the drivers' standings with 35 points to his name. And that is with no pre-season practice, thanks to a cycling accident in which he broke both his wrists.
But Stroll's achievements have been overshadowed by what his Aston Martin team-mate has done so far this year. Six weeks shy of his 42nd birthday, Alonso has been one of the stand-out performers.
He has 99 points to show for his effort so far, placing him third, thanks to five podiums from seven races. In contrast, Stroll has not finished in the top three of a race since the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.
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That is what his ambitious billionaire father wants to change this weekend. "Those are exactly the plans. Hopefully get two cars on the podium," Lawrence Stroll told Reuters, adding that the Aston Martin cars should be "very strong" in Montreal.
Alonso will no doubt be expecting to keep up his end of the bargain. But the Spaniard seemed a little less confident about his team-mate's chances when asked about the owner's declaration ahead of the race weekend.
Lance Stroll has been in Fernando Alonso's shadow for the most part so far this season (Hasan Bratic/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)"You never know, but it is an aggressive target for the weekend," he said. "But we know Lawrence, [his] ambition is super high, always, and we will try to make him happy and proud in the home Grand Prix."
Alonso also went on to offer words of encouragement to his team-mate, adding: "I think Lance is showing the speed in the car, the commitment, we saw at the beginning of the year as well, racing with a broken hand and things like that.
"You only see [that] when you really have passion for something that you're doing, and I think, for him, the most important thing now is to get the consistency weekend after weekend. We saw many times in the past, sparks of Lance, in wet qualifying, in races, at the starts, lap one performance, these kinds of things that are outstanding."