Stroll told to ‘end Alonso’s career’ and leave Aston Martin

Stroll currently sits sixth in the world championship standings after the opening three races of 2023, three positions and 25 points behind new Aston Martin teammate Alonso. 

Aston Martin have made a dream start to 2023 following an incredible winter turnaround, with Alonso claiming three consecutive podiums. 

Stroll, meanwhile, impressed as he nursed a broken wrist on his way to sixth in Bahrain, and bounced back from a DNF in Saudi Arabia to finish fourth in Australia. 

1996 world champion Hill says that Stroll, who is yet to out-qualify or out-race Alonso this season, must make it his ambition to become Aston Martin’s number one driver. 

“It [form] has to be maintained, sustained over time – it’s no good, just a blip, a one-off event,” Hill said on the F1 Nation podcast. 

“So he’d have to make it his ambition this year. He’d have to set his goal as ending Fernando Alonso’s career. Now that sounds brutal, but that’s what George Russell is trying to do [against Lewis Hamilton].

“That’s what Nico Hulkenberg is trying to do with [Kevin] Magnussen – you have to establish yourself as the undisputed king, number one in that team.”

Hill added: “I think the more interesting question for me is what is someone’s ultimate potential?”

“I think Lance has got the natural ability. I don’t think, as he stands today, he is a future world champion stand-alone on his own merits, in the same way that Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton are. He’d be knocking spots off Fernando Alonso if he was that person.

“If you want to go to the next level, then that’s what you’ve got to start doing. Speaking from my own experience, I had other levels that I had no concept of until I really was forced into those situations and had to deliver, and I know that there’s more potential in every driver than they realise.

“The question is how do you untap that potential, it takes an awful lot of commitment and an awful lot of sacrifice.”

Hill also suggested that a move away from Aston Martin, who are owned by his billionaire failure Lawrence, would help Stroll prove that he deserves to be on the F1 grid on merit. 

“If he really wants to know the answer, then he’d have to go and drive for a different team,” Hill said.

“Then he’d escape all those issues, and he’d have to sink or swim.”