Lance Stroll admits that he felt his "whole world was crumbling" after a pre-season cycling accident left him fearing that he would miss several F1 races in 2023. The Canadian was forced to skip testing in Bahrain following the incident in Spain, which left him with wrist and toe injuries, but returned to action at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix where he scored a P6 result. Reflecting back on the previous weeks, Stroll confessed that he was worried about how much his accident could impact the start of his season. "It was the most insane two weeks of my life," Stroll told the F1 Nation podcast after the race. "I fell off my bike and I went down really hard. I knew right away I was just broken. I knew right away, both wrists were crushed, and my toe. I only realised [about] my toe at the end of the day, because I was so focused on my wrist. "I had a 20-minute walk back from where I crashed my bike to the car, because we were riding through the forest, and my whole world was just crumbling in front of me, because I was already thinking, 'I'm probably going to miss a few races, maybe Australia'. "Just all those thoughts going through your head and [with it being] horrible timing, four days before leaving for the test, or even less."
Stroll: Return felt impossible during testing
After X-rays at the hospital showed the damage sustained, Stroll underwent surgery within days in the hope of returning to action as soon as possible. The Aston Martin driver watched pre-season testing from his hotel room in Barcelona whilst recovering, a time in which he was doing "10 hours a day" of rehab with an osteopath. "I didn't think I was going to be able to be in the car anytime soon," Stroll explained. "I couldn't move, I was so far from being fit to drive. It still just felt so impossible watching the test." During the days leading up to the Bahrain Grand Prix, Stroll slowly started to feel more movement and did some simulator work on Wednesday, which he admits "hurt like hell". After getting final approval from the surgeon in Barcelona, the 24-year-old was told that his wrists were "healthy enough" to go racing, and that the focus would be on "pain tolerance" rather than a risk of any further damage. "I was like, 'Okay, screw it, I'm just going to go [and] try,'" Stroll said. "[I] managed to get in the car on Friday. Anyways, it was a great life experience, makes for a great dinner story, [but] don't want to ever have it again!"
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