The team were forced to ask permission of the FIA to take part in the race.
The FIA has officially granted Lance Stroll permission to participate in the Australian Grand Prix despite missing all of Saturday’s on-track activities. Stroll’s Aston Martin encountered engine trouble, limiting him to only 16 laps throughout the entire weekend and causing him to not meet the 107% time requirement set by George Russell’s pole position. The team had to request special permission for Stroll to race, providing evidence of their capability to achieve the required time based on Fernando Alonso’s performance in qualifying. Stroll’s experience, including 178 race starts and seven Australian GP appearances, was taken into account. Ultimately, after reviewing all the evidence, Stroll was given the green light to compete. The same approval process was applied to Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen, both of whom faced setbacks during qualifying. Sainz had a systems glitch in FP3, while Verstappen crashed out of Q1 due to a car fault at Turn 1.
