Lance Stroll recounts his journey towards healing
Two weeks after his accident, Lance Stroll raced in the Bahrain Grand Prix in pain but still managed to finish sixth, thus earning his first points of the season. He talks about his recovery.
The Canadian cyclist had fallen off his bike on February 20th, three days before the start of the preseason tests that he had, in fact, missed. With a broken wrist and toe that required a hospital stay, the doctors were initially not reassured about his ability to participate in the first race of the season.
« The doctors told me that I might come back to Australia, maybe to Baku, and yes, the light at the end of the tunnel was very hard to see, he says about Formula 1.
It is then a real race against the clock that begins. The Aston Martin driver received several hours of daily care to be able to drive in Bahrain.
But I had an incredible medical team that helped me throughout the way, my osteopath Henry Howe who was with me ten hours a day, the surgeon in Spain, Dr. Xavier Mir, without whom I wouldn’t be here, Rob Madden in the UK… there’s a list of people I could mention and without whom I wouldn’t be here, so a huge thank you to them, and congratulations to everyone at the factory for building this incredible car that is a joy to drive.
Declared fit to drive, Stroll finally found himself behind the wheel on Friday for the free practice sessions. However, he appeared unable to get out of his car on his own and the onboard cameras also showed that he was struggling to drive, which once again raised doubts about his participation in the race. Thus, it was with great difficulty that he took to the track on Sunday. He eventually finished sixth, not without struggle.
« I was in pain,” he admitted on the sidelines of the Grand Prix. « But I fought to the end, thinking only about scoring those points, and it feels good.”
He now has two weeks left to continue his convalescence before the next race weekend, which will take place in Saudi Arabia from March 17th to 19th.
My right wrist is getting stronger every day, it is becoming more mobile. The one on which I was operated, my left wrist, has two very fine fractures, so it should improve, and the doctor said it should be stable by this weekend.
Next, you just need to manage the pain and it should improve over the next two weeks. I hope I will feel much better in Jeddah.
