Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll must end teammate Fernando Alonso's Formula 1 career, one World Champion has claimed. Alonso is the most experienced driver in F1 history, and joined the Aston squad for 2023 after replacing Sebastian Vettel who retired, with Stroll remaining as an incumbent driver. A turnaround in fortunes for the team means they are now fighting for podiums having gate-crashed the so-called 'big three' teams, with Alonso banking a trio of third places in the opening races of the season. Stroll has sixth, DNF and fourth place results to his name in 2023 - but 1996 champion Damon Hill believes the Canadian's goal must be to "end" Alonso's long career - just as George Russell is trying to do at Mercedes to Lewis Hamilton.
Hill issues challenge for Stroll
"To really get there [at a high consistent level], he'd have to set his goal as ending Fernando Alonso's career," Hill explained on the F1 Nation podcast. "Now that sounds brutal, but that's what George Russell is trying to do, that's what Nico Hulkenberg is trying to with [Kevin] Magnussen. "You have to establish yourself as the undisputed King, the number one in the team. "Lance has got the natural ability, [but] I don't think as he stands today, he is a future World Champion on his own merits, in the same way that Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton are. "He'd be knocking spots off Alonso if he was that person, if you want to go to the next level, then that's where he's 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 there's more potential in every driver than they realise. The question is, how do you untap that potential, and it takes an awful lot of commitment and an awful lot of sacrifice. "If he really wants to know the answer, then you'd have to go and drive for a different team, then he'd be an escape all those issues and he'd sink or swim."
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