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Fernando Alonso will have the Aston Martin AMR23 all to himself on the second day of pre-season Formula 1 testing in Bahrain, with reserve driver Felipe Drugovich placed “on standby if needed”.
Alonso and Drugovich – standing in for Alonso’s injured regular team-mate Lance Stroll – shared the car on the opening day of the test, Drugovich completing the morning session in seventh place and Alonso subsequently ending the day a close second to the pace-setter, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
And while Drugovich is a contender to race in the Bahrain season opener in early March in case Stroll doesn’t recover in time, the team has announced he will not be adding to his 40 laps on Friday – having been limited on Thursday by an “electrical glitch” that meant he logged the joint-lowest mileage of the 19 drivers.
The news could indicate a positive fitness development for Stroll, whose absence is due to what Aston has described as a “minor” and “small” incident that left him with a wrist injury.
But Aston would not commit to Stroll, who’d had a bike accident in Spain, racing in the season opener when team boss Mike Krack was asked about it earlier today.
“For precautionary reasons we decided it’s better to wait a little bit and be ready next week” was one of the things Krack said, indicating that the intention was for the team to field Stroll.
However, there could also be other explanations for the run plan. For starters, the team emphasised its driver selection for the final day of the test was still to be “reviewed and confirmed in due course”, suggesting Drugovich could yet drive the AMR23 on Saturday.
And there’s also the consideration that, even if Stroll ends up unfit for the first race, Aston Martin also has an alternative reserve driver option in Stoffel Vandoorne – who is not in attendance at the test due to racing in Formula E in Cape Town this weekend, but who Drugovich confirmed would be present for F1’s Bahrain GP.
