Stroll suspects tyre strategy harmed his qualifying effort

2017 Canadian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Lance Stroll suspects his team’s tyre strategy in qualifying had a bearing on why he failed to get into Q2.

The 18-year-old, who is racing at home for the first time this weekend, did not change his ultra-soft tyres during Q1.

Canadian Grand Prix qualifying in pictures
“We went out at the beginning and stayed on the same set of tyres the whole session,” Stroll explained. “I felt the grip was getting better, but I think the track was just improving.”

“I think the decision not to pit for new tyres towards the end of Q1 had a bit to do with me not getting through, but it is too hard to say. You can always look back afterwards and say we should have done this and we should have done that, but we are in the position we are in.”

Not for the first time in 2017 Stroll did not do a qualifying simulation run on the softest available tyres in second practice. Going into qualifying his best lap time was 0.882 seconds slower than team mate Felipe Massa’s. Stroll was one-tenth closer at the end of Q1.

Massa went on to qualify in seventh place. Stroll will line up ten places behind the other Williams.

“It was a tricky session for Lance,” said chief technical officer Paddy Lowe.

“On an evolving track he wasn’t able to match the necessary pace needed at the time he needed to. It’s always a bit tricky to manage tyre temperatures in Canada, especially this year where the tyre temperature windows are particularly acute.”

2017 Canadian Grand Prix

    Browse all Canadian Grand Prix articles

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    17 comments on “Stroll suspects tyre strategy harmed his qualifying effort”

    1. Whatever the case may be, Williams are ultimately responsible.

      1. Andre Furtado
        10th June 2017, 22:16

        Yes. For hiring him.

      2. Williams is not driving that car.

        1. But maybe he should…

    2. I was surprised to see a comment even.

    3. Andre Furtado
      10th June 2017, 22:04

      LOL I suspect global warming , wind, lack of wind, hair line crack, lack of hairline crack, too much grip or too little grip…. it’s obviously not his fault. He is clearly very talented (80 million talented) and his extensive private training 2014 is obviously paying off with his talent.

    4. As much as we make fun of this kid, can anyone explain why he was left out on older tyres?

      Setting a faster lap on worn tyres compared to everyone’s fresher ones seems counter productive or am I missing something?

      1. It feels to me like they’re treating race weekends as test sessions with him, building up his experience and not concentrating on his single-lap performance. Otherwise they’d be making sure he gets performance runs done during second practice. We’ve seen more than once that isn’t happening. Perhaps that’ll change once he’s running on more tracks he knows (the next being the Red Bull Ring).

        As you say there has to be some good reason for them to approach qualifying this way. Maybe he simply wasn’t getting enough heat into the tyres quickly enough for a change to be worthwhile – there are other teams experiencing similar problems, though not to that extreme.

        1. That is what i wasalso thinking this year just training so he can improve for next year. Still his learning curve is really slow in F3 he needed 2 years, topteam and others bought to stay behind him. I even rate Palmer higher then Stroll.

          1. Were Williams paying the driver’s salary, would they be so lenient and cuddly? Because if they are treating qualifying as a test session, it means they have written this year off.
            The whole thing doesn’t make sense.

            1. But it is not only driver’s salary they have to worry about. Stroll makes them finish a lot lower in the team ranking so they are loosing money

        2. I think he has extreme issues with getting the tyres in the right temperature window. Probably this year, with the new Pirelli tyres, is the worst time for an 18 year old to try and join Formula 1. I think getting here directly from Formula 3 was a mistake, Vandoorne also has serious problems and is massively out-qualified, and we know he is at *least* adequate to be in F1 level.

    5. Does anyone know how many years he paid for and how much it was?

      1. Lance’s dad has enough money to buy an F1 team just so that Lance can race. I think Lance can stick around and humiliate himself for as long as he likes.

    6. The reason he didn’t get a better qualifying result is because he’s an amateur.

    7. “F1 viewers suspects Stroll harmed his qualifying effort”.

    8. Pierre Racine
      11th June 2017, 13:59

      Really I lost any hope he could do better, at least this year. I don’t buy the tire warming issue. He has had plenty of time to learn how and when to warm them with practice and support from his engineers and Massa. At least he should show SOME progress but there is none to be seen after 6 GP. I wonder how long Williams will put up with this. I guess next year will be the nail in the coffin if he doesn’t show any significant progress.

    Comments are closed.