We report on the pressure effects on the orbital polaron lattice in the lightly doped manganites La1-x Srx MnO3, with x∼1 8. The dependence of the orbital polaron lattice on negative chemical pressure is studied by substituting Pr for La in (La1-y Pry) 7 8 Sr1 8 MnO3. In addition, we have studied its hydrostatic pressure dependence in (La0.9 Pr0.1) 7 8 Sr1 8 MnO3. Our results strongly indicate that the hopping t significantly contributes to the stabilization of the orbital polaron lattice and that the orbital polarons are ferromagnetic objects which get stabilized by local double exchange processes. The analysis of short range orbital correlations and the verification of the Grüneisen scaling by hard x-ray, specific heat and thermal expansion data reinforces our conclusions.