The 2022 season was only the second time in Lance Stroll’s career that he has kept the same team mate from one year to the next.
On the previous occasion, his two-year stint alongside Sergio Perez at this team when it was called Racing Point, Stroll’s performance improved compared to his team mate from one year to the next. In the qualifying score line, race finishes and – most importantly – points scored, Stroll’s percentages were notably better in 2020 than 2019.The same did not happen over his two years alongside Sebastian Vettel, despite the four-times world champion deciding to hang up his helmet at the end of his 15th full season in F1. Last year Stroll finished ahead more often than not; Vettel reversed that. Stroll’s share of the team’s points fell from 44% to 32% this year.
The qualifying score-line was largely unchanged, but consistency is not what Stroll needs here. In his sixth year as an F1 driver he has still never out-qualified a team mate over a full season – whether his partner was Vettel, Perez, Sergey Sirotin or Felipe Massa.
As was the case last year, the Baku City Circuit was the scene of Aston Martin’s best result of the season, a sixth place delivered by Vettel. He repeated it later in the year at Suzuka, thanks to an inspired change onto intermediate tyres immediately after the restart.
Stroll added a sixth of his own in Singapore. That was a welcome venture deeper into the points positions for him, as until then he had delivered no better than a quintet of single-points finishes for 10th.
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By the latter stages of the season the AMR22 was finally starting to deliver and although Vettel often got the best out of it Stroll achieved their best starting position with fifth at the Circuit of the Americas. But while he took himself out in a needless clash with Fernando Alonso, Vettel briefly led the race, only to slip to eighth after a slow pit stop.
Stroll’s cause wasn’t helped by a few run-ins with other drivers, some of which were not his fault (including his two tangles with Pierre Gasly) while others clearly were. They included, as happened more than once last year, a clash with Vettel, this time an excessively forceful move during the Interlagos sprint race which delayed both and earned Stroll a stiff penalty.
He did likewise to his future team mate Alonso at the Circuit of the Americas, causing a shunt which ended the Aston Martin driver’s race. Alonso, showing he already understands the politics of the team owned by Stroll’s father, played down the incident and claimed his rival’s penalty was unnecessary…
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| BAH | SAU | AUS | EMI | MIA | SPA | MON | AZE | CAN | GBR | AUT | FRA | HUN | BEL | NED | ITA | SIN | JAP | USA | MEX | BRZ | ABU | ||
| Stroll | Q |  | | |  |  | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| R | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Stroll was faster; Positive value: Vettel was faster
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2022 F1 season
- FIA confirms all 10 F1 teams complied with 2022 cost cap
- Steiner “not ashamed” of panning “slow” Schumacher in Drive to Survive
- Albon believes year out of F1 improved him as a driver
- Hamilton sees diversity gains in F1 years on from his ‘traumatising’ experience of racism
- Verstappen returns to Drive to Survive as season five launch date is confirmed
Archibald Bumfluff
5th December 2022, 14:43
in one car, a four time champion who is very highly rated
in the other car, a driver who is the butt of all the pay driver jokes since 2017
Lance was beaten by Seb, yes, but he wasn’t really far behind.
Here’s my hot take.
Lance Stroll compares to Sebastian Vettel better than Mark Webber did.
AlanD
5th December 2022, 14:50
Archibald, “Lance Stroll compares to Sebastian Vettel better than Mark Webber did”
Whilst not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing with that statement, I think it would be fairer to state your case as
“The 24 year old Lance Stroll compares to the 35 year old Sebastian Vettel better than the 33 year old Mark Webber did against the 22 year old Vettel”
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th December 2022, 18:02
Very curious because there’s 11 years of age difference in both cases, seems stroll is being helped by being 11 years younger and webber was disasvantaged by being 11 years older, which makes sense, although 35 years old should still be the peak for a regular driver.
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
5th December 2022, 14:58
Mark Webber managed to score more than half of Seb’s points in each of the five years they spent as teammates. (though it was mighty close in 2013)
Matteo (@m-bagattini)
6th December 2022, 9:45
> in one car, a four time champion who is very highly rated
> in the other car, a driver who is the butt of all the pay driver jokes since 2017
You forgot “On top of them, the dad of the latter”. I can’t think of a possible scenario where any driver working with Lance receives equal treatment, including best personnel, best bits and so on.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
5th December 2022, 15:14
I saw a resemblance in Vettel’s final year and Raikkonen’s final year. These once exceptional talents lost their sheer speed, focus and dedication compared to their younger selfs and therefore were quite often matched on speed by their mediocre teammates. But in certain situations they still showed their class and talent. It was not enough to warrant another year in the grey midfield but these spikes of class were still very enjoyable to watch.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
5th December 2022, 15:16
@matthijs Vettel was usually faster than Stroll in terms of pace, while Giovinazzi pretty much recorded a one-sided win against Raikkonen last year.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
5th December 2022, 15:17
In terms of quali pace.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
5th December 2022, 18:04
Thing is vettel was still very young to lose all that speed, raikkonen was well over 40 when he retired.
MacLeod (@macleod)
6th December 2022, 7:51
Losing his speed is when he got married and got childeren that is a unspoken truth of motorsports…..
I think that THE reason Lewis, Alonso does so good at their age.
Davethechicken
6th December 2022, 8:10
Nail on head, Macleod
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
6th December 2022, 9:04
Michael Schumacher won all 5 of his Ferrari WDCs while being married and having two young kids.
Scotty (@rockonscotty)
6th December 2022, 12:42
I never considered that. It makes a lot of sense.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
8th December 2022, 13:41
@macleod Raikkonen had by that point been married and divorced, so clearly marriage isn’t the problem, nor is going single a panacea. Also, some drivers go faster after they have children, so your observation is false, spoken or otherwise.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
5th December 2022, 17:38
Oh my.
A retiring, sometimes fumbling Vettel still outscored Stroll this baddly?
Quite a bit.
Imagine what a prime Vettel would have done to Stroll..
At some point even Stroll might already be beyond his peak?
How will they attract top talent now?
Oh wait,, without a problem… I am sure they could get two near top drivers and compete for P4 in WCC..
As it is they will always be behind midfield teams with better drivers.
Grapmg
5th December 2022, 17:58
Next year stroll against Alonso. I guess his seat is guaranteed but it will be a difficult year for Lance.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
5th December 2022, 17:44
It is totally irrelevant how far Lance falls behind when his Daddy owns the company.
Todfod (@todfod)
6th December 2022, 7:04
@nullapax
Best part is, Stroll doesn’t think he’s far behind either. He’s still living on the high of that fluke pole position and inherited podium he once got. He’s been the only driver who’s been thrashed by every teammate (except for Sirotkin, who smashed him quali), yet he knows he deserves his seat more than any other driver.
We can only hope he gets bored of this hobby and leaves the sport… Or his dad runs out of cash to fund his son’s hobby.
David
5th December 2022, 17:57
this narrative is boring. 4 time world champion beats team mate. what a surprise
it shows how high the bar is set for stroll. the opposite of rose tinted glasses.
he could win the world championship and people would still think he doesnt deserve to be in f1
HSV
6th December 2022, 11:52
Absolutely this. Seen another comment saying “He’s been the only driver thrashed by every teammate (bar Sirotkin)”, ignoring the fact his other teammates have been Massa, Perez and Vettel. “Thrashed” is an interesting comment, too, considering Massa beat him by a mere 3 points, and 2021 saw Stroll finish more races ahead of Vettel when they were both running at the end.
2020 was interesting too. Was matching Perez until his spate of bad luck mid season.
Sure, he isn’t a future world champion. But the incessant attacks on him is getting tiring.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
5th December 2022, 19:39
I find the comment on Alonso’s comment about Stroll in the USA a bit strange. It may be true, but he seems to speak pretty badly to the team he’s in, and always has. Him instantly blaming Ocon in Brazil for something that Alonso actually got a penalty for is a clear example. It seems odd that he would support Stroll already when he’s been rather disrespectful to his own team quite a few times this year.
grapmg
5th December 2022, 20:05
So the conclusion is that he really thought the penalty for Stroll was a bit unnecessary. Or does Alonso only understand politics when he joins a new team but not when he is part of the team?
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
5th December 2022, 21:24
that is what I find strange. Everyone is claiming he is saying what he said because he’s going to aston martin and will be Stroll’s team mate. But currently when he is Ocon’s team mate (who effectively is the leader in this team as he’s been there for some time plus he’s french like the team), he does not treat him like a team mate although Ocon doesn’t either. Like I said, his crash into Ocon in Brazil was rediculous and he was just blaming him.
MacLeod (@macleod)
6th December 2022, 7:53
I think he was burning bridges when the accident with Ocon……
Proesterchen (@proesterchen)
6th December 2022, 1:30
Isn’t Fred traditionally all butterflies and rainbows when joining a new team, turning highly acidic only towards his inevitable departure?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
8th December 2022, 13:44
@proesterchen This pattern has been noticed, although the honeymoon period is variable (and at Minardi, there was no “bitter period”, which demonstrates that Fernando is capable of being civil throughout if he sees reason to be consistently civil).
Maisch (@maisch)
5th December 2022, 22:35
8-9 in race finishes compared to his team mate, apparently he isnt that bad, or vettel is really slow aswell. Though he isnt the one who finds that extra thenth in the qualifications.
dot_com (@dot_com)
5th December 2022, 23:14
Genuine question – has stroll ever beaten a team mate in F1?
David
5th December 2022, 23:52
Massa
Edvaldo
6th December 2022, 3:02
Wrong. Sirotkin is the answer.
And he was faster than Stroll.
dot_com (@dot_com)
6th December 2022, 13:36
Ah that’s right. Stroll and Sirotkin at Williams. The dream team.
Edvaldo
6th December 2022, 0:07
I don’t care about what people say about Stroll. Anybody can get half decent with all this mileage daddy bought him.
He would have to be beyond bad for his dad to pull the plug, and he isn’t. But he’s definitely below average.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
6th December 2022, 5:32
Lance’s performances have not been all that bad.
Where it will get interesting is if AM turn out a beast car in the next couple of years that has the capability of challenging for the WDC & WCC.
Would his position become less secure if he was costing them a chance of a WCC because he couldn’t rise to the level required to keep his side close to the front?
A rhetorical question really because I don’t see AM bringing a car that good any time soon,