Lance Stroll has received a warning from the FIA’s compliance officer after appearing to shove a team member during the Qatar Grand Prix weekend.
The Aston Martin driver was eliminated from Q1 during Friday qualifying for last weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, to his visible frustration.After arriving back in the team’s garage following the session, Stroll threw his steering wheel out of the cockpit of his AMR22 in frustration. Moments later, he attempted to make his way to the back of the garage but was approached by his osteopath and performance coach, Henry Howe.
Formula 1’s television broadcast appeared to show Stroll push Howe as he reached the back of the garage. He then offered minimal answers to reporters when speaking in the paddock media pen after the session.
The FIA announced Stroll’s behaviour was being investigated in a statement on Tuesday, disclosing that the driver was in dialogue with their compliance officer, Paolo Basarri, over whether he had broken the the governing body’s rules. However, the FIA did not specify what the potential breach Stroll was being investigated for was.
Today, in a statement, the FIA announced that Stroll had formally apologised for his actions in Qatar. In response, Basarri issued Stroll with a written warning to remind the Aston Martin driver of his behavioural obligations and its zero-tolerance policy on ‘physical harassment’.
The FIA’s Code of Ethics states in section 1.4 that “all forms of harassment against participants to the FIA activities, be it physical, mental, professional or sexual, are prohibited.”
Stroll has not yet made any public comment on his apology or on the FIA’s warning. He currently sits in tenth place in the constructors’ championship on 47 points, six places and 136 points below team mate Fernando Alonso.
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Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
13th October 2023, 18:04
But nepo baby can do what he wants. It’s daddy’s play-thing, after all.
Jazz (@jazz)
13th October 2023, 21:04
“Nepo Baby” OMG I’m stealing that!!!!
Nick T.
15th October 2023, 5:11
That’s been around a long time. So steal away.
Jere (@jerejj)
13th October 2023, 18:09
Lol
Alistair
13th October 2023, 19:46
We will let you off this time, but we have a zero tolerance policy for harassment!
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
13th October 2023, 20:54
I can understand how frustrating it is not achieving basic goals, such as getting out of Q1, or being compared to another driver, but the other driver is driving exactly the same car on the same race track and is much older than Lance, so one has to suspect Fernando has a weaker body than Lance does. That leaves us with having to suspect the reason Lance has less WDC points than Fernando does or gets knocked out of Q1 or whatever is because of his own lack of skill and self discipline. This isn’t the fault of the team, it is the fault of himself. So how do you get more skill? There’s an old saying about “practice makes perfect”. My own experience is practice, and especially lots of practice, and then more practice, definitely enables you to approach perfection. Lots of practice even opens up doors you didn’t know existed, so you gain abilities you didn’t know you had.
Jazz (@jazz)
13th October 2023, 21:10
$troll does appear to be a bit podgy lately, maybe the weight gain is a sign he’s not as focussed on success as much as he once pretended to be.
Dex
13th October 2023, 21:10
He had 10 times more practise opportunities in his junior days than any other driver from his generation. Privately rented tracks, cars (including F1 cars), tutor drivers coaching him instead of competing against him… In the end he had to buy a seat anyway, and when that wasn’t working out – an entire team. He’s an experienced driver already, one of the most experienced drivers in F1 in fact, and he hasn’t had a single decent season. This is it for Junior. The only way he can do better is to pay everyone else to drive slower.
anon
14th October 2023, 0:05
Dex, there were quite a few contemporaries of his that were rumoured to have had quite a bit of private testing during their junior career, particularly where they were part of an F1 team’s junior driver programme, and there is more private testing going on than there should be in those junior series, especially in Formula 3. Norris, for example, is one driver who was active in Formula 3 at around the same time as Stroll was, and there were allegations that Norris’s father had been paying for Norris to have private test sessions in Formula 3 cars as well.
If anything, some of those working in those junior series have complained that private testing has been a major problem in Formula 3 for quite a few years now, but nobody wants to admit it’s going on because too many of those within the sport actively profit from covering it up. To some extent, the difference with Stroll might not be some much about the amount of private testing, but simply that it was given more publicity.
AlanD
14th October 2023, 2:59
Anon, people rarely seem to mention that Norris’s father is one of the richer people in the UK. I don’t know their current wealth but the family was either just in or just out of the top 500 on the UK rich list a few years ago. To give some context, the Sunaks (British PM and wife who is daughter of a billionaire) rate about 220 in the rich list and worth a mere half a billion, so obviously the Norris family are not billionaires, but still have more cash to spend than most drivers.
A lot of drivers come from wealthy families, because by and large morir racing is not a poor man’s sport. For instance, Mick Schumacher obviously has the MS wealth behind him, and Latifi’s father is a billionaire. Perez’s parents were barely millionaires when he got into motor racing.
Dan
13th October 2023, 21:18
2cents… the AM GTP program is for Lance…
sethje (@seth-space)
15th October 2023, 19:00
a nice way to let him go without losing face….
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
13th October 2023, 21:22
He always looks like one of the puppets from Team America: World Police to me.
Nick T.
13th October 2023, 23:09
He really does.
I was just watching re-watching 2021 and it’s amazing how much better he was driving then. He was generally qualifying higher and finishing in better positions in that car than he is this season.
Nick T.
13th October 2023, 23:11
BTW, it’s the eyebrows that make him look like a Team America puppet.
Electroball76
14th October 2023, 15:06
They will write Stroll a letter, telling him how angry they are.
Nick T.
14th October 2023, 18:07
They’ll say good going F.A.G. You really made the world a better place, F.A.G.
BTW, before I’m banned out of hand (lol), these are literal quotes from Team America with F.A.G being the acronym for the Film Actors Guild in the film. Ah, Alec Baldwin was a great chairman.
NoelyNoel (@noelynoel)
14th October 2023, 15:51
Matt Damon!
Nick T.
14th October 2023, 18:04
Matt Damon!
drmouse (@drmouse)
14th October 2023, 20:50
It’s inebidibwe!
Nick T.
15th October 2023, 5:13
Derka derka!
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
15th October 2023, 14:56
🎶 “I’m so yonely…” 🎶
baasbas
13th October 2023, 21:25
Not here to defend any behavior of Stroll. That said, I feel this is absolutely ridiculous. The mild shove is a team issue and should be solved by the team. Or not solved at all if the team so wishes.
Had he pushed a team member of a different team, different story..
Nick T.
13th October 2023, 23:10
100%. This is a great example of making a mountain out of a mole hill. Ironically, if he had been literally 3 inches more to the right none of us would have ever known this had happened.
Derek Edwards
14th October 2023, 0:20
Knowing whether it happened or not is irrelevant, likewise who he shoved. It did happen and he shoved somebody, so legally this is assault and it needs to be investigated. Presumably Howe has had input into this as well, which is right and proper, especially as this happened in the workplace.
AlanD
14th October 2023, 2:30
Derek: “so legally this is assault”
When a shove like that is called an assault, it diminishes the meaning of the word.
baasbas
14th October 2023, 8:25
@Derek Edwards
No it’s not. I’ll tell you what it is: none of our business.. that’s what it is.
Ferdinand
14th October 2023, 9:16
It has a certain witch hunt element in it, I agree. Maybe because Sr won’t let new teams play. Everything is either politics or circusification these days.
Moi
15th October 2023, 9:14
Finally some common sense
Andre Furtado
13th October 2023, 21:37
Is this a record for the history books ? How many drivers have actually received this warning ? Is he the first one ever ?
Sonny Crockett (@sonnycrockett)
13th October 2023, 21:57
He’s the first son of a billionaire team owner that somehow – despite being of average ability – gets to drive for the team.
I’m guessing it’s a first.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
13th October 2023, 22:29
Now I think about it, latifi is also a son of a billionaire, however not having bought the team he couldn’t even keep a seat at williams despite paying some money.
Mark (@blueruck)
14th October 2023, 21:34
I’m not a Lance nor Sr. fan, but Lance has more than avg ability, unless you are saying avg among F1 drivers. He has been given every possible opportunity and not been able to rise to the occasion. I think it is time to give him a mgmt position in the team and get the silly season going for his seat.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
13th October 2023, 22:35
I wonder if they’ll go back, Massa-style, to several historic cases of “mental harassment,” and certainly to Nelson Piquet at Hockenheim in 1982.
AlanD
14th October 2023, 2:34
I don’t know if this is the first time ever a driver has received a warning, Can anyone remmeber what happened when Schumacher thought Coulthard had brake tested him in the wet, rear end shunt, and MS went storming down to the McLaren garage all set for a fight.
And earlier than that, I can vaguely remember two cars colliding on a corner, and one driver coming out of his car and swinging a punch at the other. I think it was James Hunt commentating who said it was stupid, trying to punch someone in a crash helmet.
Ferdinand
14th October 2023, 9:19
There was some shoving between Max and Ocon in Brasil, albeit not within a team. Didn’t Max have to do time with the Marshalls as a result of it? Must have been accompanied with a warning.
MichaelN
14th October 2023, 11:56
Yes, he had to perform two days of ‘community service’ at an event selected by the FIA.
tielemst
13th October 2023, 22:43
Great. The fake mandatory excuses are given. Everybody can sleep peaceful now, knowing they’ve protected moral values.
Ferdinand
14th October 2023, 9:21
Yep.
Sham (@sham)
14th October 2023, 9:33
The FIA showing how much tolerance is actually in their zero tolerance approach.
It would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic
David Styles
14th October 2023, 10:41
Whilst his father hasn’t run out of money, his son has clearly run out of talent.
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
14th October 2023, 18:09
1. Had the incident not been broadcast in F1TV, would there even have been this warning?
2. Had Mr. Howe lodged an official complaint with FIA?
Nick T.
15th October 2023, 5:15
1. No
2. No
Olivier
15th October 2023, 10:05
Standing up for Mr. Howe is the least that the FIA could do as Mr. Howe is in no position to lodge an official complaint to the FIA regarding his boss’s son.
This will give Mr. Howe some kind of closure as he now knows that Stroll’s toxic behaviour has been deemed unacceptable by the FIA and the world. Hopefully it will give him the courage and self-esteem to set his boundaries to Stroll’s bro behaviour.
Todfod (@todfod)
16th October 2023, 10:34
The FIA need to make Lance do some community service.
If he would quit F1, that would delight the F1 community.