Lance Stroll, Williams, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2018

Stroll says his car “got loose” in crash with Hartley

2018 Canadian Grand Prix

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Lance Stroll said his first-lap collision with Brendon Hartley was triggered by him losing control of his car.

Stroll and Hartley retired from the race after the dramatic crash which left both cars in the barriers at turn five. The Williams driver said he was “fine” after the crash and described how it happened.

“I had a good start and gained a few positions,” he said. “I was side-by-side with Brendon going into turn five.

“The car got loose on me, I corrected it, but there was not much room for both of us. And by the time I collected it we touched.”

Stroll suspected a puncture may have contributed to the crash. “I said I thought there might be a puncture because I did feel some contact,” he said. “That’s why at the time I thought the car just suddenly snapped on me. But I haven’t looked in depth yet with the engineers.”

Both drivers were taken to the medical centre following the crash. Hartley, whose car was launched into the air after contact with the turn five barrier, was taken to hospital for tests, where two ECG scans showed no cause for concern.

The stewards cleared both drivers of responsibility for the crash after reviewing video footage of it. “Car number 18 [Stroll] lost the rear in turn five,” they noted in a statement. “As both cars were in close proximity they collided, no driver was predominantly to blame for the incident.”

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Keith Collantine
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53 comments on “Stroll says his car “got loose” in crash with Hartley”

  1. His fault.

  2. Lance Stroll said his first-lap collision with Brendon Hartley was triggered by him losing control of his car.

    Great summary. He is by no means a dirty driver, he is just not in control of his car.

    1. Exactly right!

    2. Watching the onboard camera he looks so out of control its unreal

  3. Neil (@neilosjames)
    10th June 2018, 20:58

    Nice to see he has some awareness of what actually happened, unlike his boss…

    1. Pretty sure his boss just did not want to rock the boat on live TV @neilosjames

    2. +1 I noticed that too.
      Good to see Stroll being able to admit his mistake.

  4. It’s the nut between the steering and seat that needs fixing…

    1. Sush meerkat
      11th June 2018, 23:27

      It’s the nut between the steering and seat that needs fixing…

      Haha

      Where’s the dipstick in a Williams FW41?
      IN THE DRIVERS SEAT! Ba dum tish!

      … I’d like to apologise for my awful joke

  5. He might have been carrying tyre damage already from a touch with one of the Mclarens at the start.

  6. GtisBetter (@)
    10th June 2018, 21:04

    He is very aggresive on the starts. Sometimes it works, but a lot of times it results in some kind of damage. He should evaluate it, cause it just doesn’t seem to be worth it.

    1. Why evaluate? His attendance is not linked to his performance anyway

  7. Kubica must feel so frustrated watching Laurel and Hardy messing up race after race!

    1. Maybe you’re right. But i don’t think he would want to drive that car

    2. Kubica’s eyeroll to the camera after the crash said it all.

  8. Having watched the replays a number of times, I think Stroll might have crashed even if Hartley wasn’t on the outside. Stroll’s car was sliding so much he would have ended in the barrier or on the grass anyway. Then again, if Hartley wasn’t on the outside, Stroll might have lifted a bit more and not lost control of his car.

    1. He seemed to be having a tank-slapper going on, or at least the beginnings off one @kaiie

    2. He seemed to be having a tank-slapper going on, or at least the beginnings of one @kaiie

  9. Gutted for Hartley, it was difficult to overtake there anyway, with all the dirt on the outside. But he was entitled to have a go.

    He needed a good race here.

    1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
      10th June 2018, 23:21

      @fer-no65 yeah, you gotta feel for the guy…when it rains, it pours

      1. Agreed- Hartley needed a good result and I feel for him, but maybe shouldn’t have put his car there. Long race and he maybe should have waited a bit. Buggar for both of them.

  10. Watching this guy race is like watching my 3 year old in a toy car, the way he jerks at the wheel. Hartley didn’t deserve this

  11. There did seem to be some suggestion from the SKY commentry team that there’d been an earlier, briefer collision which could have resulted in a puncture on the rear.

    If so, would be consistant with the way the car slid on the corner. But the few camera angles they showed just didn’t show enough of the lead into the corner, most were tracking further up the order. Could have done with the veiws from some following cars.

    Of course, if there had been no puncture, then sloppy.

    Hartley was also a little ambitious overtaking on that corner. Not exactly a lot of room.

  12. It seems Hartley he his head against his halo. That shouldn’t be possible

    1. Hit his head against the halo

  13. I dont want to slag Lance off just for the sake of slagging him off…but its getting harder not to.

    The car isn’t working, that is obvious, but the fact that Williams have two rookies (ish) drivers, makes it even harder for them. Putting Kubica in the car isn’t going to solve anything, but surely they have nothing to lose? It could turn into an extended test session. They might actually get some value out of it.

    1. @jaymenon10 I can easily imagine Williams convincing Lance to stop racing for a while and go back to his PS4 until the car is “faster” and Begging Robert to jump in; except Robert is saying Hell No.

    2. Except for the fact Williams is happy with strolls money, he can be the worst driver ever, and Williams will still race him to the end of the year. Last week Williams said stroll has done everything expected of stroll, which I found amusing.

  14. Hemingway (@)
    10th June 2018, 21:47

    What planet is Claire Williams on? I’m sure the commentators were cringing listening to her words during the race, as I’m sure most people (with a brain) were. It looks as though she’s totally incompetent (much like Zak Brown). Single handedly orchestrating the destruction of a once great team. Frank needs to get her outta there!!!

    1. @theessence – What did she say? I don’t think the C4 broadcast covered it.

      1. @phylyp
        I just remember that she said Hartley hit the side of Lance, can’t remember the rest as I was spraying spittle everywhere.

      2. Hemingway (@)
        11th June 2018, 0:27

        Basically blaming BH fully, she went in hard on him lol

        1. @george @theessence – thank you. Ouch, that is a bit low, especially coming from Claire.
          Then again, classic shark tank behavior – since it was Hartley, she sensed blood in the water and decided to pile on him.

          1. The comments attributed to Claire Williams are not entirely correct. I listened carefully to what Claire said, and she didn’t wholeheartedly blame Brendon for the crash. The quote on Sky F1 was:

            “...Brendon seemed to come into the side of him [Stroll] while he was minding his own business.. …. you can look at the replays but to be honest we haven’t looked at it properly … but it doesn’t matter whose fault it was, Lance is now out …”

          2. @potsie159 – thanks for correcting me, and I take back my criticism of Claire. I was a bit surprised that she’d actually said what was claimed, hence my “especially coming from Claire”, so it’s good to be corrected on that.

            After she’d seen the onboard view from Sirotkin, I do wonder what she had to say.

    2. @theessence,@phylyp, having just watched the video on F1.com I think Ms.Williams may have been misled by the broadcast commentary by some u-know what for brains claiming Stroll to be the completely innocent bystander in the incident (he probably confused the 2 williams cars, only registering 1 of them). Top marks to Lance for owning up, I’m not going to pile in on him as the car is obviously an absolute dog, but some of the press seem to be overly generous towards him, could Stroll senior be lavishing more than just praise on them ?

      1. @hohum – thanks for that pointer, I went and took a look at the video on the F1 site, and man, am I ever grateful that I don’t get a Sky feed? Crofty contradicts himself in the span of seconds – “Hartley got squeezed up against the fence” immediately followed by the contradictory “The Williams an innocent bystander in that”. And then he doubles down on his contradictions by saying “…Hartley is out, this time it wasn’t a car crashing into him, it was him crashing into Lance Stroll” that again contradicts “And it was Stroll just ahead who left him no room whatsoever”. And here I was getting a bit annoyed with Ben Edwards’ C4 commentary yesterday.

        The onboard from Sirotkin is interesting in that it shows Stroll squeezing Hartley onto a previous set of kerbs, even before the collision starts, which also explains why Hartley was where he was during the collision. I’m a little surprised the stewards didn’t dwell on it too much. And yes, it seems to be as much a fault of the car, seeing how the rear twitches, leading to the start of the accident.

        1. Totally Agree @phylyp … Crofty is starting to get quite annoying ; and the back did kick out on Stroll in what seemed an unusual way.

          I feel really bad for Brendon here – I think he had the right to try the move up the inside, and now he has another DNF due to no fault of his own (similar to Monaco)

  15. Hemingway (@)
    10th June 2018, 21:49

    Also, Kubica must be enjoying this mess unfold haha

    1. @theessence – not sure, tbh, I think Kubica is probably somewhat glad he’s not racing that dog of a car.

  16. Stroll is so lucky Sirotkin is not wiping the floor with him. I am hurting for Williams.

  17. Looked to me like he was playing hardball with Hartley trying to get him to back out, then his car snapped as he ran wide off the racing line. It is very tricky at the start on this track so I don’t want to come down too hard on this mistake, but the crash was his fault.

    1. @george – very true re. the possible hardball – the Formula 1 site has a video, that includes a view from Sirotkin’s onboard, that shows Stroll squeezing Hartley onto a kerb a little before the collision, and it looks like either the Stroll’s actions or the Williams’ behavior with that squeeze led to his car stepping out a little while later.

  18. This is what happens when billionaires entertain their brats delusional dreams at any cost …

    1. Do u mean Lawrence Stroll or Frank Williams?

      1. Touché

      2. LOL!!!!

  19. Considering that corner has been easy flat for a number of years now I think it just shows how unstable/unpredictable the Williams is that it stepped out on him at all if there wasn’t some sort of damage.

    1. Quite possibly the instability was made worse by the outwash from Hartley’s car and the Williams just gave up all rear grip.

      1. I do not think that wash could be to blame – the Toro Rosso was wholly behind (and to the side of) the Williams when the rear kicked out on Stroll’s car

  20. Talking bout consistent penalties.
    Grosjean got a penalty for pretty much the same thing in brazil last year…

    1. I’m not so sure that the Stroll/Hartley incident is really comparable to Grosjean/Ocon Brazil 2017. In Brazil Grosjean was the car coming from behind (and up the inside) of Ocon when he got the snap oversteer. Primary difference is aero-wash was (may have been a factor) in the Grosjean incident, whereas Stroll was in clearer air when his rear snapped out.

      I think in both cases the incidents are really ‘racing incidents’ and no penalties should have been imposed. It was harsh of the stewards to penalise Grosjean.

      Therefore @jon-thereyougo, you are correct – if (as he was) Grosjean was penalised, so should Stroll be – 10 seconds and two licence points was the outcome for Grosjean in Brazil 2017.

  21. My initial feeling is that if you want someone to blame for this crash, it is on the man who designed the williams car. What that car did was uncontrolable, no matter how rookie the driver is: if the car react as it did, disaster will hapen.
    We have seen a very unstable and unpredictable Williams chasis once before, that had a very fatal outcome in the 1994 season. If it was up to me, I would ban Williams from racing untill they sort this out.

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