diff --git a/docker/test/stress/stress b/docker/test/stress/stress
index 85374d5efed..ddb309c7aee 100755
--- a/docker/test/stress/stress
+++ b/docker/test/stress/stress
@@ -75,6 +75,9 @@ def call_with_retry(query, timeout=30, retry_count=5):
         else:
             break
 
+def make_query_command(query):
+    return f"""clickhouse client -q "{query}" --max_untracked_memory=1Gi --memory_profiler_step=1Gi"""
+
 
 def prepare_for_hung_check(drop_databases):
     # FIXME this function should not exist, but...
@@ -95,23 +98,23 @@ def prepare_for_hung_check(drop_databases):
     # Some tests execute SYSTEM STOP MERGES or similar queries.
     # It may cause some ALTERs to hang.
     # Possibly we should fix tests and forbid to use such queries without specifying table.
-    call_with_retry("clickhouse client -q 'SYSTEM START MERGES'")
-    call_with_retry("clickhouse client -q 'SYSTEM START DISTRIBUTED SENDS'")
-    call_with_retry("clickhouse client -q 'SYSTEM START TTL MERGES'")
-    call_with_retry("clickhouse client -q 'SYSTEM START MOVES'")
-    call_with_retry("clickhouse client -q 'SYSTEM START FETCHES'")
-    call_with_retry("clickhouse client -q 'SYSTEM START REPLICATED SENDS'")
-    call_with_retry("clickhouse client -q 'SYSTEM START REPLICATION QUEUES'")
-    call_with_retry("clickhouse client -q 'SYSTEM DROP MARK CACHE'")
+    call_with_retry(make_query_command('SYSTEM START MERGES'))
+    call_with_retry(make_query_command('SYSTEM START DISTRIBUTED SENDS'))
+    call_with_retry(make_query_command('SYSTEM START TTL MERGES'))
+    call_with_retry(make_query_command('SYSTEM START MOVES'))
+    call_with_retry(make_query_command('SYSTEM START FETCHES'))
+    call_with_retry(make_query_command('SYSTEM START REPLICATED SENDS'))
+    call_with_retry(make_query_command('SYSTEM START REPLICATION QUEUES'))
+    call_with_retry(make_query_command('SYSTEM DROP MARK CACHE'))
 
     # Issue #21004, live views are experimental, so let's just suppress it
-    call_with_retry("""clickhouse client -q "KILL QUERY WHERE upper(query) LIKE 'WATCH %'" """)
+    call_with_retry(make_query_command("KILL QUERY WHERE upper(query) LIKE 'WATCH %'"))
 
     # Kill other queries which known to be slow
     # It's query from 01232_preparing_sets_race_condition_long, it may take up to 1000 seconds in slow builds
-    call_with_retry("""clickhouse client -q "KILL QUERY WHERE query LIKE 'insert into tableB select %'" """)
+    call_with_retry(make_query_command("KILL QUERY WHERE query LIKE 'insert into tableB select %'"))
     # Long query from 00084_external_agregation
-    call_with_retry("""clickhouse client -q "KILL QUERY WHERE query LIKE 'SELECT URL, uniq(SearchPhrase) AS u FROM test.hits GROUP BY URL ORDER BY u %'" """)
+    call_with_retry(make_query_command("KILL QUERY WHERE query LIKE 'SELECT URL, uniq(SearchPhrase) AS u FROM test.hits GROUP BY URL ORDER BY u %'"))
 
     if drop_databases:
         for i in range(5):
@@ -120,12 +123,11 @@ def prepare_for_hung_check(drop_databases):
                 # Otherwise we will get rid of queries which wait for background pool. It can take a long time on slow builds (more than 900 seconds).
                 #
                 # Also specify max_untracked_memory to allow 1GiB of memory to overcommit.
-                databases = check_output('clickhouse client -q "SHOW DATABASES" --max_untracked_memory=1Gi --memory_profiler_step=1Gi',
-                    shell=True, timeout=30).decode('utf-8').strip().split()
+                databases = check_output(make_query_command('SHOW DATABASES'), shell=True, timeout=30).decode('utf-8').strip().split()
                 for db in databases:
                     if db == "system":
                         continue
-                    command = f'clickhouse client -q "DROP DATABASE {db}" --max_untracked_memory=1Gi --memory_profiler_step=1Gi'
+                    command = make_query_command(f'DROP DATABASE {db}')
                     # we don't wait for drop
                     Popen(command, shell=True)
                 break