Alonso’s response to Stroll’s ‘aggressive’ Canadian GP target

Ahead of his and son Lance’s home race in Montreal, Stroll set his drivers the goal of achieving a double podium finish of the first time this season. 

Stroll told Reuters that he hopes to see “two cars on the podium”, adding: “I’m extremely confident. I believe the car will be very strong around the Montreal circuit, it suits our car well…so I’m really looking forward to going home and really looking forward to a great race.”

Although he did not completely rule it out, two-time world champion Alonso admitted such a feat will be a big ask given Red Bull’s dominance so far this year. 

“You never know, but it is an aggressive target for the weekend,” the Spaniard 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.”

After a disappointing Spanish Grand Prix, Alonso vowed that Aston Martin would “crush” Mercedes with a significant upgrade set to debut on the AMR23 this weekend. 

On Aston Martin’s prospects, Alonso continued: “I think it should be a good weekend but you never know until you hit the track. We also had expectations in Barcelona and we didn’t perform in that race. Let’s see. 

“We have a couple of new parts on the car as well at this race. Depending on the weather, we will try to test them and validate them and hopefully can be a little bit more competitive than Barcelona.

“[Here you] need to have obviously confidence in the car. It’s a semi-street circuit, you get very close to the walls, you need to ride the kerbs as well. It’s a very bumpy circuit. 

“Weather normally plays a big factor here as it will do again this weekend. Experience always helps – this is the 17th or 18th Canadian Grand Prix [for me] so that always helps.”