16/11/2020
NEWS STORY
In a series of posts on social media this morning, the Silverstone-based outfit revealed that Lance Stroll's issues with his Inters during the Turkish Grand Prix were mainly due to damage to his front wing.
During the team's routine post-race car set down, we discovered damage to the underside of Lance's front wing that was a significant contributor to the graining issues he experienced during his 2nd and 3rd stints on the intermediate tyres at the Turkish Grand Prix," said the team.
"Lance reported poor tyre performance, significant understeer and graining from lap 17 onwards in the race," the team continued. "Pitting for a fresh set of intermediates on lap 36 failed to resolve the problem, with the graining becoming even more severe.
"One of the strakes on the underside of the front wing had come loose and lodged itself in such a way that the blockage caused a significant loss of front downforce. The resultant loss of front downforce contributed to increased levels of graining.
"Data during the race confirmed there was a significant loss of front downforce - but with no visible damage to the top side of the front wing, combined with the low-grip conditions, it was difficult to confirm whether the data was correct.
"It was only after the race, when the car returned to the garage, that the damage and blockage to the underside of the front wing was discovered."
In the opening stages of the race the Canadian built a lead of around 10s on the wets, but it was once he switched to Inters that his problems began. In no time at all, there was a clear sense of urgency in the voice that only a few laps earlier appeared to have everything under control.
As the race continued, he gradually lost pace allowing teammate Sergio Perez to close in along with Alex Albon, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton.
Clearly struggling, the Canadian was called in for another set of the green-banded tyres, but things rapidly went from bad to worse, as he was gradually picked off by Hamilton, Verstappen, Vettel and Leclerc, finishing the race a distant ninth, over seventy seconds behind the winner.
"I don't know what happened, I don't understand," said Stroll at race end. "We had so much graining on the first set of intermediates. We decided to pit, we were losing seconds a lap.
"I just don't know where that graining came from, it just happened instantly," he continued. "It grained again, massive graining, and no pace. We'll have to look into it, it was pretty terrible today."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Istanbul, here.