There is no doubt any driver who has a super license and makes it to F1 is extremely good and somewhat talented . Practice makes perfect and certainly sharpens one’s sklills , throwing tons of money for coaches and equipment from a young age also helps . The Argument against Stroll almost always is about him coming from money and that is plain wrong . None of our business what the family does with their money and if that allows Lance to live his dream, all the power to him . The reality is , in my opinion anyway , that despite all the help he has had throughout his career starting at a young age , he is not very good . It is pretty obvious he lacks that last 10 to 20% needed to be a top notch driver and you cannot teach that. . He will be in F1 for as long as his father pleases , I think his dad is a very overpowering figure who is living his dream through Lance . I don’t see Lance driving for a team that is not controlled by his father and certainly no team is going to poach him away from Aston for $10mill a year , so many other choices that would cost less and perform at least equally or better initially. As a team manager of an under budget team , I would hire any super license holder that brings money and sponsorship . Given that Papa Stroll runs Aston , the likelihood of Lance leaving for another team as a pay driver is zero , it would mean that he is out of favour with his dad and is getting sacked or wants to get away from his Dad and that is also very unlikely as I would never pay Lance 10mill to drive for me , that is more than Bottas now and more than what Kimi was making his last few years . I would like to root for him and prove all his detractors wrong , I am not sure he will but kudos if he does . Anyway , he will be around for a while and has provided a good Benchmark for futility at times , sometimes not his fault , a lot of times all his . He doesn’t crash too much unlike his washed up WDC teammate who should pack his bags . To think Vettel’s addition to the team was to help Lance , Vetrerl needs more help than Lance lol . He is at the wrong time of his life with the wrong team and the wrong state of mind . Time to take a sabbatical from the sport and have rest to contemplate the future . He was good 10 years ago even though his detractors downplay his WDC wins, he won fair and square and was mentally strong and not prone to random stupid mistakes , something is not right in his head, I can’t see how after all the glory and the top teams how some one can enjoy driving something non competitive and finishing last or close to tast . Happens all the time in all sports , champions stay on for too long , their skills are not the same anymore and they think they still have it . Bad way to go , I raced , 30 years , won a lot and lost my fair share , midfield finishes were of mixed emotions . But the bottom line , I never got into a race just to fill starting positions , we always has a chance to win or top 5 . As a driver who has faced tremendous success , assuming it isn’t for financial needs , racing to fill the field without ever having the chance to win or top 3 is very damaging to their psyche and self confidence. Some just love the F1 life , love the thrill of being on track even though they might never win a race or be on a podium . I don’t get it as I always wanted to win , not even having a shot would demotivate me I have a feeling this is a long read , had some free time for a change . Thank you reading . Some of you will disagree with me , I am good with that ,My opinion is certainly not gospel, i like to think I am straight to the point , I would like to come across as unbiased and I try to put to use the years of racing experiences and lliferime wisdom to good use . Cheers lol , hope you stayed awake through the rant
I read the lot. Thanks. For me the bottom line is who are we to decide who should be in F1 if they satisfy the criteria?
Right. Besides we decide nothing to begin with. Some of us have just illusions of grandeur. As for who should be in F1: Reminds me of BADoer at Spa filling in. Remember he was sooooo slooooow that the other drivers had concerns about their and his safety. Ultimately the matter was dropped and he "raced".
I have to say that I disliked Stroll's behaviour while defending this weekend quite a lot. I don't rate him very highly for sure, but his antics feel like sour taste to me. His 5 seconds penalty was nothing compared to the damage done to the Gasly and Bottas behind him. Even worse is that he still thinks he did nothing wrong. Somebody else deserves to take his seat. Unfortunately, Vettel's seat is probably the one to get empty sooner.
Since Larry Stroll took the helm Force India - Tracing Point - Aston Martin has become the Team Haas of old(while burning many millions of OPM). Clearly Lance is just another Canadian billionaire's wanker son. F1 craves their dollars but needs neither(Latifi). Exit Stage Left, gents. You SUCK!
I think all of us would love a billionaire father that would buy us an F1 team. Lol. But Stroll is just mediocre, clearly good enough to drive an F1 car, just not competitively
To be honest he has some serious skills to be in F1 now, not jut money. Problem is there are at least 12 or 13 drivers more skilled than him who aren’t in F1 right now..
I agree with Tom...he's good enough to drive an F1 car but anything beyond that? At least he's not the disaster he used to be.
Yep...Some may claim that Stroll saved the team by buying it out but there were 5 other serious parties that wanted to buy the team as well.
Force India/Racing Point could be seized as we speak, if Stroll didn't buy it a couple of years back. Mazepin had just a $115M property seized in Sardaigna.
Easy to sit at home all comfy and criticize an F1 driver, but I have to agree that his weaving or 2 changes of direction in front of Bottas were excessive on the straight. "The five-second penalty was frustrating, even though it didn't change our final race position. I caught Valtteri after the Virtual Safety Car and made up a place so it was frustrating to receive a penalty for weaving," he added.
He is brain dead and appears to be completely ignorant of a sound understanding of a simple rule. Sympathy ZERO. Enough of his idiocy. Ricci has a sound opinion of him after Austria 2020. Look it up - his peers exceed him and a few much better drivers such as Ricci hold him in low ranking. Let him 'skipper' the yacht and give track day lessons lol.
Piastri sort of new Vandoorne ? Maybe I see it more like a Russell type of driver. I rate Charles higher like Verstappen.
Maybe, who knows ? If he is that good his time will come. But I still cannot see Lawrence Stroll sacking his son to give the seat to Piastri.
You might be right or not. You won't know about the real qualities until the person actually races a F1 car. MS wasn't regarded highly until he sat in a F1. And vice versa some "hot drivers" became ice cold once they sat in a F1.