"He was the bad guy like in the movies"- Lance Stroll recalls watching future Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso's races as a kid

For Lance Stroll, the first introduction of Fernando Alonso in his life was as a bad guy. Speaking to Motorsport, Stroll talked about how the first time he became aware of the Spaniard was in 2006 when he was just a child while Alonso was going up against Michael Schumacher for the title.

According to Stroll, who was very young at the time, Fernando Alonso was the bad guy as the Canadian was a huge Schumacher fan. Speaking about the moment, Stroll said:

“I watched him on TV in 2004, 2005, 2006, when he won his titles and was fighting against Schumacher. I was a fan of Schumacher. [Alonso] was the bad guy in my eyes! I was six years old, and he was the bad guy like in the movies. But he was always super exciting to watch. And he still is. He is one of the best drivers. He is still very lively at around 42 years old.”

Stroll first met Fernando Alonso when he was just 11 years of age. The Canadian revealed that he was just too nervous and could not say anything to the Spaniard. Stroll said:

“I don’t think there were a lot of words coming out of my mouth. I was probably rather flabbergasted by this experience.”

Fernando Alonso's move to Aston Martin to partner Lance Stroll was a bit of a surprise for the paddock members. Even Alpine was confused at the decision as the French squad is 4th in the championship right now while Aston Martin is 9th. Speaking to the media about Alonso's decision to leave, Alpine boss Laurent Rossi also admitted that he was unsure of the premise behind the Spaniard's decision to move. He said:

“He is now switching to a race team that is ninth in the World Championship. That means rebuilding work he has already done with us. Alpine would certainly have been a lower risk for him from a sporting point of view. Fernando’s time is also limited. There are also other things we couldn’t offer Fernando. I cannot set the bar arbitrarily high. We ask our employees in the factories to make sacrifices. We cannot go too far in Formula 1. Formula 1 is not a toy for us, it is a business.”

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Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen might have a similar driving style

Fernando Alonso's driving style could be somewhat similar to what Max Verstappen has, in the view of Aston Martin's Dan Fallows. Speaking about the 2023 F1 season, the British engineer said that he felt Alonso's driving style could be a bit influenced by karting and hold similarities to the way Verstappen drives. He said:

“I don’t know Fernando very well, so my knowledge of his driving style is based on what others have said. He has a reputation for very much driving by feel – he really likes to feel the limits of the car. If that’s the case, we need to make sure that the platform of the car is predictable, stable, all the things that we try to achieve with a car anyway, but it’s absolutely amplified with someone like Fernando.”

He further added:

“Max Verstappen is a driver very much like that. He likes to drive a car at, or slightly over, the limit all the time, so you need to make sure the car behaves properly in those conditions – at the absolute limit. My understanding is that Fernando will be very similar.”

It will be interesting to see how the Spaniard fares at Aston Martin next season.