Lance Stroll, Racing Point, Circuit de Catalunya, 2020

Stroll: Some people will always try to “destroy me”

2020 F1 season

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Lance Stroll says he accepted early in his Formula 1 career that he will always face criticism due the backing he has received from his father.

Lawrence Stroll bankrolled his son’s progress through the junior categories which included a special F1 testing programme when he moved into the championship from Formula 3 in 2017. The following year the billionaire purchased the Racing Point team, which his son now drives for.

Stroll said criticism of the privileges he has enjoyed in his progress to F1 is “always going to be there.”

“I think it’s just how it is,” he told Natalie Pinkham’s podcast. “I’ve come to that realisation a long time ago already.

“Everyone has their opinion. I just do my talking on the track and I try and stay in my own little bubble and block out the negativity and the outside noise.

“When you’re successful at something, you’re trying to chase your dreams, there’s some people in this world that if they’re going through frustrations and they’re envious in any shape or form, they try and pull you down with them and that’s the world we live in.

“So there’ll always be outside noise, there’ll always be negativity. I just try and keep it positive and listen to the people that are close around me. That’s ultimately all that matters. You can’t please everyone, you can’t be everyone’s best friend in this world, it doesn’t work like that.”

Stroll said he realised “very early on in my first year Williams” that “every time I would do badly, I would make a mistake, people would just trash me and just destroy me on the media.

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“And in life as well, friends and stuff – not really friends, but people that I knew – when I would do well a lot of people were my best friend. Friends of mine that I wasn’t really so close to, all of a sudden you’d do well and they’d be your best friend.

“As well on social media, when I’d do well it would all go quiet. All the hate and all the noise would just disappear. And then when I do bad again it would all come back, it would all restart.

“So I saw that pattern very early on. And to be honest, I mean, you’ve got to laugh at it, because if you don’t laugh at it, you’d feel like crying. So I’m trying to take it lightly to be honest.”

Racing Point recently confirmed they had cut short their contract with Stroll’s team mate Sergio Perez by two years in order to bring in Sebastian Vettel. The team’s CEO Otmar Szafnauer said the team never considered the possibility of replacing Stroll.

The 21-year-old made his F1 debut after winning the Italian Formula 4 title, Toyota New Zealand series and the European F3 championship, in its previous incarnation. Stroll said those successes proved his potential as a grand prix driver.

“I had to win those championships,” he said. “That’s why there’s the super licence points in place – the 40 points that you must achieve by winning certain championships to get the points to compete in Formula 1 – or else there’d be a lot of people without talent that could just buy their way in and once maybe be awful.

“I would like to think that I proved myself leading up to Formula 1 and in Formula 1 to an extent. I know I’ve had my bad years of Formula 1 and I’ve had my struggles. But at the same time, there’s been a lot of highlights, in my eyes, throughout my Formula 1 career and I want to keep going so my sights are set on the future.”

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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...

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81 comments on “Stroll: Some people will always try to “destroy me””

  1. I’ve never been one of those people who’ve criticized him because of his financial backing.

    1. Personaly never attacked him because his backing. He is a decent driver nothing special. I saw him driving in the Florida races where he met Max verstappen. Max overtook him but wasn’t so happy about his defense…

      1. Well I will..

        When your Daddy has the money and you don’t have any business being at this level of racing then how can you honestly expect a ride.
        If you aren’t that good, then you better have a whole bunch of money
        If you’ve got the money, then you get to fake your way onto the grid.
        Sorry it’s a bad example and I hold no issues for young Stroll except his path into my sport, Grand Prix Racing.
        I would admire Stroll junior if he just went to his old man and admitted he has had fun but he knows his dad isn’t going to see him become World Champion any time soon.
        The hard knocks in life makes you better they say. Old man Stroll sees his teams potential with Seb as the future of his company, not his kid. Hard knocks right? Lance junior is barely scratching his weight at the moment. Maybe one year with Seb as the number one may give junior some hope to become competitive with such a great car as they currently have. The test of young Stroll still has a chapter to finish

        1. So what? We all take advantage of the opportunities that arise for us. Lance is no different. He is only doing what every single one of us would di in his position. Plus he’s a pretty damn good driver. Dont hate the player, hate the game!

          1. Pretty damn good?? I mean, I’m not one who criticized him for his backing, I only criticized him when he drove badly, but from here to considering him a very good driver there’s worlds apart, decent is the word I’d say.

          2. Did you just day he’s a damn good driver……holy christ now I’ve heard it all. No he is not……he’s a very average driver. Lucky to be in the position he is in. Yes he’s there because he is bankrolled by his father. Plain and simple. I have no quarrel with him taking his father’s money. I do however take issue with the fact that you call him a damn good driver…..

          3. You only survive in F 1 when you become a viable points collector. Otherwise the pressure to produce will get you. Ask Vettle.

        2. H67 has a very limited view and somewhat envious opinion of the entire topic. Face it, you have to have talent to be a top level F1 driver. Not everyone whose parent has money to support can show the same results as Lance has.

    2. I’m sure there’s plenty of people that dunk on him just because he’s a pay driver for dad’s team. And I don’t even think that’s completely unrelatable, anyone working for a small to mid-sized business had had to deal with the boss’s kids coming into the company in a privileged position and it’s almost never a good thing. To that end, I understand.

      My problem with Stroll is that I just don’t find him to be a great driver. He was brought into F1 way too early, following Verstappen’s lead, but without his qualities and all the while his team boss at Williams kept telling us how he was the next best thing. Then he had an abysmal run of races, his father bankrolled test days in old cars until he got a bit better, then he lucked into a podium in Baku and suddenly everything was “redeemed.” That first season, the only actual highlight was a good qualifying to 4th in Italy, everything else was meddling to poor at best. And this continued for the next years at Williams and the first year at Racing Point, he couldn’t beat team mates that were supposedly not that high class decisively. Not a well-past-his-prime Massa who was pulled out of retirement. Not Sirotkin. Not Perez. And now, with a Pink Mercedes that’s naturally quick due to both engine and chassis, we’re told again that Stroll has finally made good on his promise, by the likes of Will Buxton on F1.com only recently, and I’m still not seeing it. Yes, he got a podium… But he was all set to win that race and he messed it up. He was on de facto pole position for the restart, messed up the start, and then hung back in third while Gasly was obviously shown to not have the same level of pace as Sainz had and with Sainz not being able to overtake, why couldn’t Stroll close that gap? I don’t see that race as a good performance at all, he lost that race, he didn’t win a podium.

      Ultimately it feels like he’s a (lower) midfield driver, and that’s fine, but the machine behind him and himself keep pushing him to be on the level of the other young talent like Leclerc, Max, Russell, Norris, and I just don’t see that from Stroll in any of his performances, he’s not there on race craft and that’s plain to see. Four seasons in, if there was this promise, he should’ve made easy work of weaker team mates at the very least, but he doesn’t do that. So is it unfair to say that with the performances he’s had over his time at Williams, he deserved a Racing Point seat over Ocon, and with his performances last year and this year over Perez (and Hulk), getting that seat over him? I don’t think you could really argue that.

    3. Not that we will ever know, but l wonder what the grid thinks of his ability as a driver..the pink Merc is flattering him this year

  2. 1 seat, saved a team and fed all the families that worked there, all the way down to the janitor(meaning low wage jobs) I’m cool.

    Better than many pay-drivers I’ve seen.
    Sad about perez though.
    But is no maldonaldo..

  3. Who knows… Maybe in the future, we could look back on the Strolls as a father and son team who made their mark on F1

    I like Lance and he’s been driving pretty well this season. I wish him the best for the future.

    1. They own an F1 team and brought Aston in as a team.

      Mark is already made dude.

  4. ” I just do my talking on the track”
    He doesn’t talk very well does he.

    1. He talks still better than most keyboard waiters write.

      1. Ouuuchhhh @coldfly 😀😀

      2. @coldfly Not wrong there.You had best learn how to spell ;)

        1. You had best learn how to spell

          Telling my swipe-autocorrect-keyboard exactly the same ;)
          Glad you got it anyway.

          I wonder though what your excuse (“you had best learn”) is :P

          1. Excuse for what @coldfly?
            Me (and others) stating an opinion against Stroll and you trolling it and them?

          2. Excuse for what @coldfly?

            Seriously? @mobiusclean
            I even quoted the sentence. Twice!

            PS Im not even sure if one can troll a troll. It’s probably more like a parent making baby noises when talking to their newborns.

    2. Won the european F3 title (and not by a small margin either) in 2016.
      Second youngest driver ever scoring points in F1.
      Second youngest to take a podium in F1. And that wasn’t in a particular good car either.
      Outscoring his (very experienced) teammate this year in F1, incl a podium finish.

      What else does he need to do to proves himself? Or is it impossible for him to prove himself, because daddy is rich and you are jealous? And may I ask what your racing credentials are?

      1. I have nothing to be Jealous of.I would hang my head in shame if my Daddy bought me a race team in F1 knowing that i am unworthy.

        1. Can you answer my other questions please? You have a very strong opinion, so please explain.

    3. IDK @mobiusclean, but so far this year his talking has been decent enough, I’d say. Sure, one could blame him for not holding onto the chance thrown into his lap in Monza, and Perez has been the quicker in qualifying more often than not (including last weekend when Stroll had the new updates on the car). On the other hand, there haven’t really been any things most other midfield drivers couldn’t have had agains them.

      I would agree that his first few seasons probably showed that he got up into F1 too soon and more development would have helped him do more of the learning in the junior categories. But on the other hand he did get that podium in Baku, he did also get that first row start in Monza and a few more quite decent drives especially in tricky weather that showed the guy does have talent and just needs to grow into it.

      Nice one there @coldfly!

  5. Martijn Schenderling
    21st September 2020, 8:00

    His driving has improved a lot imho, proving once again machinery is a large part of success. I always said Hills and Vettels WDCs would have been won by my grandma had she been in that car. So knowing only moderate skills but with the right equipment can deliver results, makes it logical there will be people buying themselves into a seat. He has always been open about that. Its just their strategy. A number of teams had their owners as a driver in the past. Nothing out of the ordinary.

  6. He still shouldn’t be in F1. How many drivers would have thrived with unlimited testing and the comfort of knowing your seat was safe no matter what you did…..

    And after all that he’s still just average.

    1. Like in other sports where only those who don’t test and who are in fear of not making it to the final should be allowed to participate.

      I guess that without the training the sportspeople will look much more like the fans on their couches.

      1. Lance is that you? Give it up, even your dad knows you’re a bit rubbish but doesn’t have the heart to tell you….

        1. Not sure that’s entirely correct. I think he has been on par with Perez this year if not better. Seems like a good bloke overall but like Will Buxton said in his analysis recently on the F1 website, needs to just adjust how he comes across in interviews with the media. Tbh, with the background he has, it’s not too difficult to see why he sees everyone as anti-him. In my eyes he deserves a place on the grid at least a bit more than some others who are warming seats (read Grosjean, Magnussen and Giovinazzi).

        2. Lance is that you?

          Hilarious!
          If you can get out of the couch, you could try stand-up comedy :P

          1. Definitely think it is Lance 😂.

            That level of privilege is pretty repulsive though. Imagine just having daddy buy a team and living on his neck like that as a full grown man. I’ll be impressed if he gets offered a seat at a team his dad isn’t a major shareholder of, even if that team was Hass. But why would they? There’s so many better drivers in F2 waiting and more deserving. A non race ready driver came in and out qualified him and only lost because the team called him in to box completely unnecessarily just to spare the baby boy some embarrassment. 😂 Stroll is moist.

    2. Ok, I mean, I could agree if you were proposing to give others equal opportunity to learn and test as Lance was able to get due to his father being able to pay the bills John. But surely that shouldn’t be held against him, but rather against the whole supportive structure of motorsports.

      But if you hold that against him, shouldn’t we also hold that against Max who had his father support him to go racing soon. And against Perez who had Slim support him since early on. And against Albon for having his family and later Red Bull supporting him. I think I could go on for a long time.

  7. I like his demeanour regardless

  8. I admired people who can laugh at social/non-social media.

  9. What happens if he is faster than Vettel?

    1. Id like to see that LOL

    2. Well, rule of thumb applies. Then vettel is a bad 4 wdc champion. But still no love for Stroll Jr.

      1. Yes, I would also say (as my own opinion on how I’d view the 2 drivers) that it’d be shameful for vettel to be beaten by stroll, despite the disaster of recent years, but certainly wouldn’t elevate stroll, I’m pretty sure vettel is a downgrade on perez performance wise atm.

  10. Stroll is a very interesting case. I certainly don’t judge him for having a wealthy father… I’m sure if any RaceFan was offered the chance to drive Formula One cars for a living by our parents at a young age we’d have taken it!

    With regards to his outright pace he seems to be improving, though I can’t help but remain sceptical. An aging Felipe Massa was better than him in his debut year. He was about level with Sergey Sirotkin. Perez easily had the beating of him in 2019, but Stroll seems far more on his level this year. Perez surely hasn’t got dramatically worse, but equally I struggle to believe that Stroll has become dramatically better in such a short period. I’m not sure what I’m implying, because I really don’t believe that Racing Point would artificially make him look better than he is. One thing he has on his side is that his race craft seems good. He’s not a “crasher” as such (pressure maybe getting to him in Monza aside) and seems to get the car to the finish in the position it deserves.

    To be honest, I think the biggest issue I have is that I can’t warm to his personality. He’s not an extreme personality (one way or the other) like Ricciardo, Norris, Raikkonen, or perhaps even Vettel or Verstappen, but then neither are many of the others. He just comes across as grumpy and entitled. That may be unfair, but I think if I was in his position, I’d at least be trying to enjoy the experience! … perhaps you can’t judge until you live it!

    1. He just comes across as grumpy and entitled. That may be unfair, but I think if I was in his position, I’d at least be trying to enjoy the experience!

      Could you give an example of him coming across as entitled? What makes you think that he isn’t enjoying the experience?
      Maybe he deliberately acts distant and uninterested in his interviews because of how he has been portrayed in the media and the amount vitriol that’s been thrown towards him since his F1 debut…this article should give some context to that as well.

      1. @neutronstar – perhaps “entitled” was the wrong word to use. Certainly “grumpy” is how I’d describe many of the interviews I’ve seen with him.

    2. I think you summed this up quite well @ben-n

      Stroll is a good driver, but it’s difficult to judge him accurately when you consider the advantages he has had throughout his entire career, whether that be equipment, backing or other support. When you consider a driver such as Gasly (or any other young “academy” driver) is under constant, intense pressure to perform – it tests their resolve and strength. Only the strong make it through.

      Stroll does have pressure to perform but it is decidedly less, which might contribute to a “yea, whatever” attitude.

    3. @ben-n I believe that no amount of money would have seen LS get this far if he didn’t have talent and a huge passion for it. ie. this isn’t just some rich kid whose Dad pays for his hobby. Lance is seriously into doing what he loves. So is Lawrence.

      I think we saw a rookie against the most seasoned of veterans in Massa, engrained at Williams, both in a terrible car. The car remained terrible the next year, thus still handcuffing the now second year driver who likely couldn’t glean much from his first year. Then he went to year one at RP against the engrained veteran there, and now he sits in a much more competitive car and alas his performances are much better too.

      I don’t have an issue with his personality or attitude as I think he has to be a bit guarded in that regard. What I have been impressed with is that some of his races where I thought he must be over the moon (and he might have been inside) he sounded like a WDC might sound…it’s not like he won the thing, so until he’s fighting for wins he’ll only be so happy. ie. nothing from what he says tells me he is just content to podium once in a while and call it a fun and successful hobby. I’ve defended him for his money and his performances in his first three years, and now he has shown that he’s a real competitor. WDC level? Remains to be seen, but all kinds of drivers have great and exciting careers doing what they love and barely win a race let alone a WDC. He’s having a blast trying, and he’s not faking us out, nor ripping the audience off, just because he is from money, like that solves everything and has him artificially there. He is there for real when you hear him speak on his sessions or his races.

    4. My explanation is that this year’s racing Point is a lot better/easier to drive than last year’s car @ben-n This means that the difference in talent between Perez and Stroll has been levelled somewhat.

  11. People are jealous, because he has got one of the best dads in the world.
    Buying your son an F1 team, who does that.

    1. If you look up Lawrence Stroll you’d see this just isn’t for Lance. This is what Lawrence Stroll does for work; Buys undervalued companies with potential, polishes them up and makes them successful with proper business plans and marketing. IE Polo by Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Micheal Kors, to name a few. Now he is doing the same in an industry he has a personal passion for, racing cars, by buying an F1 team and now Aston Martin, a prestigious brand with racing history that was undervalued and floundering. I’m pretty sure he would have done the same even if his son wasn’t driving. The fact that his son is driving is just a bonus.

    2. Not my dad… I was a bit sceptical but he’s grown on me quite a bit! He kills first laps, he’s steadily improved over his time and I’m happy to admit he should be on the grid. Not something I thought I would be saying..

      Racing point is in much better condition now as well so I’m happy the Strolls are in F1, its a better place with them. I miss Hulk and there are others that should be in F1 but that has always been true. 3 more teams could go some way to making that happen..

      1. This is one of the interesting sides to this story. Having the Strolls in the sport has massively benefited Racing Point, which has almost certainly made the field stronger overall. I suspect their involvement also kept Williams afloat for longer than they otherwise would have been.

  12. Stroll seems to grey a lot of flack for the fact that daddy bought him an F1 team, in my mind though this isn’t really any different to many other pay drivers who get funding from their family or other big business to but their way into the sport. Perez for instance is loved by fans but also by teams because of the amount of sponsorship money he brings with him. Strolls situation is just more obvious and up front because of the family connection.
    I can understand a general dislike of drivers effectively being able to buy themselves into the sport rather than being about the best drivers but lets be realistic, motorsport costs a lot of money so one way or another you need that money to get into the upper levels, irrespective or where or who it comes from.

  13. I love watching him, makes it look difficult, especially from the in car camera view; he has so many inputs in one corner. Has had some decent results and holds his own to be fair to him and like most of the pay drivers, he is super nice. Be fascinating to see what happens if Seb cant match him.

  14. Jose Lopes da Silva
    21st September 2020, 9:56

    I do my best to keep the noise up when things are going well for Stroll. I find it way more worrying than his failures.

    The mark that the Strolls might leave in the sport is turning it to a dystopian version of the fifties, where several drivers bought their cars and went racing – but now on a higher level, being needed much more money.

    There are a lot of drivers out there with hard work and passion. But F1 only has 20 seats. We already have two sons of billionaires racing like owners, total or partial, and they can’t be fired – unlike pay drivers in the past, whose money would run out. People can say what whey want about Perez, about early sponsorship for Alonso or Schumacher, but the facts remain: never a driver could go up to F1 knowing he couldn’t be fired, or having F3 teammates bought and lifting the foot for him. It’s George Russell who says it, not me.

    The next is Nikita Mazepin. In a couple of years we will say “Mazepin is not that bad, is going stronger each year, now he does not punch his rivals, people are envy and mean because of his father”, etc.

    People prefer to criticise Red Bull for their meritocratic system rather than this Team Owner.

    1. having F3 teammates bought and lifting the foot for him. It’s George Russell who says it

      Did George really say this?

      1. Paraphrased, but yes, during their European F3 days where in the opening race teammate Nick Cassidy got ahead of Stroll at the start and then let Stroll pass on the first corner via a rather suspicious lock-up and Russell came in third.

        Mind you, Russell isn’t the only one that has made this accusation over the years. Some reputable sources have stated similar things in the past, where Prema allegedly deliberately selected 2nd drivers to Lance.

      2. Jose Lopes da Silva
        21st September 2020, 10:19

        Google “russell stroll euro formula 3”.

  15. To summarize: Babby-Stroll is sad because other drivers, and teams, don’t take him seriously.

    When Papa-Stroll bought Babby his very own team, I said this publicly: Babby has, at most, a couple of years to prove himself driving his Papa’s car. His end goal should be finding any other team to drive for asap, if he wants to have any sort of self- or given- respect among his peers. Well it seems Babby’s time is not only up, but all this nepotism it has also cost Perez his seat and done so very publicly.

    I barely skimmed through the article, but the point that stuck with me was him having fake friends who would only be his friends when he was doing well. Which is weird, when you’re surrounded by all that fakeness your entire life, it should be easy to recognize your own fakeness, aknowledge it publicly, and step aside as gracefully as you possibly can.

    Nobody here has a problem with a father buying opportunities for their own child. We would all do the same whether we were the parent, or the child.

    What fans of motorsport have a problem with is continued nepotism, acting as if it’s not a big deal. And then having the audacity to expect fans not to just begrudgingly accept the situation, but to participate in Papa’s and Babby’s public delusion and give Babby praise, as if is earned. Babby drove a Mercedes clone, using a Mercedes engine, and he could not outperform a Toro Rosso using a Honda engine off the line.

    It’s time for Babby to go play with his other toys, and let his more talented friend get a chance to play with this particularly rare toy.

    1. Someone is coming of as a baby right now, sure, but it isn’t Stroll.

      1. You would not expect experienced drivers like Kimi or Vettel to dawn on their Victim cape, and try to publicly justify their existing on the grid, by waving around past F1 championships when everyone around them is constantly shining a bad light on their “motivation for the sport”.

        Moving hazard zones like K-Mag and Crashjean don’t come out every second weekend, after inevitably causing some yellows, to wave their GP2 “achievements” in peoples faces. Demoted drivers like Kvyat or Gasly did not do so in the darkest hours of their careers.

        And yet here we have Babby’s public “woe is me”-letter to all the other kid’s parents, telling them the kids are being mean. Babby is sad that others do not praise his below-mediocrity like his Papa promised they would.
        I have now read the article, and Babby himself agrees with me, this is not about the opinion of the fans. He could not care less what some doughy, soft, fan thinks while laying on the couch.

        Whatever you need to tell yourself to force yourself to like Babby, go ahead, the truth will still stare at him in the mirror.

        1. Is this the bit you are referring to, Cranberry?

          there’s some people in this world that if they’re going through frustrations and they’re envious in any shape or form, they try and pull you down with them and that’s the world we live in.

          1. “As well on social media, when I’d do well it would all go quiet. All the hate and all the noise would just disappear. And then when I do bad again it would all come back, it would all restart.

            “So I saw that pattern very early on. And to be honest, I mean, you’ve got to laugh at it, because if you don’t laugh at it, you’d feel like crying. So I’m trying to take it lightly to be honest.”

            Babby laughs at couch potatoes posting on forums/blogs about how he is not worthy. He does not give a single hoot about the opinions of Joe Average. I wouldn’t either.

            Babby is sad that he is not getting respect from his peers. That’s what the flaunting of past achievements is, he’s saying he is comparable to the likes of Russell and Norris. Laughable, I say.

            Babby’s problem is that I am the type of “hater” that seethes even when he is “doing well”. Think of how much further someone like Norris could be in his career if we didn’t have Babby taking up 5% of Formula 1 seats? What could a real driver like Russell achieve behind the wheel of the Pink Mercedes?

            There are worthy drivers being left without a seat because Papa has all the money. We already lost Hulk, and now Perez was a direct casualty. I also suspect Babby had to sit at the meeting and watch Papa give a genuine consideration to having a Perez-Vettel duo, which was probably the catalyst to this public cry to get the same taps on the head the other kids are receiving, only for them it is on merit.

            Fact of the matter is, F1 toys are expensive, and even Papahaving all of the money might not be enough …and the amount of couch potatoes that seethe, even when Babby is “doing well”, increases.

        2. Dear oh dear! Youre are quite a sad individual , aren’t you. Daddy, daddy the rich boy got to drive fast cars and I didn’t. Get over it sunshine.

  16. It’s hard to quantify just how much the vastly improved tRacing Point has had on Stroll’s improvement this year, but he certainly appears to be driving the car more than the car driving him than when he first set out. Watching the onboards from 17-18 he looked more like he was trying to hack down a tree than drive an F1 car. His half dozen or more wheel movements in one corner has come down to maybe 2 or 3, mainly correcting on corner exit. It looks like he has gotten physically stronger and improved his style to cope. That said. it is obvious the ’17 Williams is not a patch on the ’19 Mercedes, but then one could argue that he should be p3 in the championship not p6.

    Regarding jealousy, of course I envy him, who on this site wouldn’t want to be the only son of a racing obsessed billionaire with his own f1 team and race track? I just like to think I’d have a bit more humility and say maybe F1 is not for me, “daddy can you buy me a sportscar team instead, the f1 boys are too mean”

    1. @hollidog

      I don’t think this car is the 2nd best team. The car at times is probably 2nd best, but I don’t think the team quite know how to make the most of a car this good, and that down to the drivers all the time. They have ruined strategies a few times this year. They have also been incredibly fast at one stage of some weekends, and clearly struggled at others, and that goes for both drivers. Again, I think the team haven’t worked out where to focus the strengths of the car. They seem very inconsistent.

  17. And I’m guessing at least a few will, Lance.

    Worst part is he may obliterate Vettel and start thinking he’s ‘better than a four times champion’.

  18. I don’t get how anyone rates his performances that highly, I think if you put Alonso, Ricciardo or Hamilton in that RP and you’d have a podium on pure merit this year. I think Perez is performing below par and it’s now not hard to see why.

    Perez is always held up as being a good driver but if you look at some of his previous match ups it just doesn’t sit well with me that he’s anything other than a mid tier driver at best. He got beaten by Button and didn’t even have the single lap pace and he was a pretty poor qualifier. He narrowly edged out Ocon but when you see Ocon is nowhere next to Ricciardo it puts into context that perhaps that was not a great achievement. He was so so with Hulkenberg who I also thought was a mid tier driver tbh. If you keep this in mind of comparing a demotivated Perez to a Lance Stroll who is no doubt getting every help behind the scenes then his marginally better performances do not seem to make him a great driver.

    In summary, I think Stroll is a very average driver and not getting the most out of that car (neither is Perez either tbf). I don’t care if he stays in F1 or not, as long as his dad is paying to keep a team afloat like he was at Williams then I’m fine with having him around funding a team.

    Am I jealous for not being the son of a billionnaire, not really, I’m pretty happy with the parents I have and my quality of life compared to the majority of the globe is very good. Funny how some rich people seem to think everyones opinion revolves around money…

    1. @slowmo Totally agree mate.
      I don’t believe that there are too many drivers on the grid that Stroll would be able to beat if they were in the same machinery and i suspect that Perez isn’t performing at his best at the moment because he knew he was on the way out at the end of the season.
      Stroll received the new upgrade for the last race (Perez missed out) and Perez still out qualified him.

      1. Don’t forget, Perez is missing 2 race results from his positive Covid test. I fully expect him to real Stroll in as the championship progresses, to give him the best chance of getting a seat at another team for next year.

        1. @maestrointhesky

          And Stroll has had 2 DNFs. Their luck hasn’t been that different this year in a sense. And we have to say it is likely that Perez was heavily responsible for being tested positive by his actions. Even if you don’t count Stroll’s points in the two races Perez missed, that takes 10 away from Stroll and he’s still ahead. And if you add points to Stroll had he not had his 2 DNFs, that would be at least an extra 15 points. So to be realistic this year, I would say on pure merit, he would realisticly be around 10 points ahead of Perez which is not bad at all.

  19. Like most I dislike a pay driver, but come to respect Stroll. Having all the negativity would knock over many, especially at that age, but he’s coping and starting to drive quite well. 2 podiums is not bad at all, and is not far away from Perez who I rate highly. Let’s see if he’ll stagnate or continue development.

  20. I don’t think anyone wants to “Destroy” you Lance but you are always going to be viewed as the spoilt brat whose Daddy bought him a drive.
    You are improving with every race and (in my opinion) have always been one of the finest starters on the grid.

    Try not to live in that “bubble” too much though please?
    Don’t become one of the privileged wealthy who simply pretend that the rest of us do not exist.

  21. He’s performing quite well at the moment but it’s taken him too long to get to this point, and even then his ‘good’ performances have been less out of skill and more out of luck. He’s struggled to overhaul every team-mate he’s had so far and if Perez wasn’t being kicked out and missed two races due to Coronavirus I doubt he’d be as far ahead. Hulkenberg sat out most of the year, did 1 race and was immediately on Stroll’s pace if not better – and arguably Stroll binned an easy win in Italy. He’s not terrible, but he’s certainly not good and is just performing to what the car can do.

    That’s without the stench of nepotism and money that follows him around, which is pretty distasteful. I doubt anyone’s trying to ‘destroy’ him, he’s just not that impressive.

  22. Imagine having to commend either Stroll or Vettel for beating the team mate next season. Certain fans and pundits sure will get a bug. Gotta be funny seeing one of them off the hook for a whole season.

  23. The simple fact of the matter is Stroll is bang average. If not for Daddy he would not be in F1.

    1. money is how the less than stellar always got into f1. But I think RP got great deal with an “average” stroll.

  24. Stroll is doing okay, I guess, but I’d propose that you could take almost any reasonably fit young person who has a huge drive to become a top racing driver, and turn them into one. Provided, of course, that said young person has a patron (parent) willing and able to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into their training and elite racing programs. I don’t begrudge Lance his enormous wealth, but that wealth is the ONLY reason he has reached these heady heights. The same Lance growing up in a family with more normal means would probably have never attracted the backing he would have required to progress beyond karting.

  25. Jose Lopes da Silva
    21st September 2020, 17:31

    “I don’t care if he stays in F1 or not, as long as his dad is paying to keep a team afloat like he was at Williams then I’m fine with having him around funding a team.”

    This is the most perverse aspect of all this business.
    I’d rather have Williams and Jordan gone bankrupt by now. Yes, I don’t think about the jobs, etc., I’m a cynical laissez faire capitalist, yeah. A couple of bankruptcies and maybe the powers that be could realise the sport is not financially sustainable. But we’re attracting petromonarchies, passionate Strolls and we’ll keep new teams from entering. It is what it is. It’s not good.

  26. I dislike the way F1 is right now but I dont really dislike baby stroll directly. Anyone who would get their hands on that level of wealth would probably do the same.
    Its just sad how broken F1 is, the 0.1% can indulge their hobbies and buy their kids f1 teams while the regular fans cant even see a race free to air.

  27. Daddy’s cash.

    Or daddy’s crash….

    Thanks Sim Dane!

    Puncture? Hmmmm. I hope RP clarify if it was or wasnt, suspect wasnt.

  28. He just seems… So unlikable.

  29. I don’t take him seriously. He’s effectively a pay driver.

    But happy to see him do well.

    He strikes me as a genuine racer. A little unsure of himself at times probably because he’s embarrassed by being gifted rides in F1.

    But he’s not the first nor last pay driver.

    He’s never shown the arrogance or disrespect of pay drivers like Sergio Perez and Maldonado for instance.

  30. if dads money is funding the team why shouldnt he drive .
    as long as no one says formula one has the 20 best drivers in the world .

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