Nothing I can do about this “rough patch” – Stroll

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In the round-up: Lance Stroll says he’s trying not to dwell on a series of five bad race weekends since Monza.

What they say

Lance Stroll’s season has taken a severe downturn since his podium at Monza, not having scored a point since, suffering three retirements and a COVID diagnosis. He says that despite the frustrations, he’s only trying to look ahead:

It hasn’t been fun. I’m not going to lie, it’s been frustrating at times but, you know, this sport is a rollercoaster and I’ve had some highs at the beginning of the season. I thought up until Monza, really, it’s been it’s been a great season for me and unfortunately, now I’ve just gone through a rough patch and there’s nothing I can do about it.

In hindsight, there’s definitely some things that I believe I could have done differently. There’s been some mistakes that I’ve made in some of the races that cost me some points. And then there’s been just unfortunate circumstances like Mugello, where I crashed and then, of course, missing the race in Nurburgring was far from ideal but that’s in the past now. There’s nothing that I can do about it.

So instead of dwelling on it, I’m looking forward to the next four races. I know we have a strong package and there’s plenty of opportunity in the next four races to come back strong and my sights set on on this weekend as it stands and of course, the remainder of the season.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Scalextric observed a potential way to shake up F1’s predictability: should we resurface the tracks every year?

Seems to me that new, slippery surfaces offer a lot to the fans. The teams lack data on tyre wear so strategies can get mixed up in quali and the race. Driving mistakes are more common, so good drivers get a chance to shine. Track evolution over the weekend adds another layer of unpredictability.

All of those add reasons to watch and all of those will annoy the engineers and drivers who strive for perfection and consistency – which is why they have comments or maybe even concern about the low grip.
Scalextric

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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...
Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....

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26 comments on “Nothing I can do about this “rough patch” – Stroll”

  1. Reply to COTD-
    I think it is the responsibility of the tire designers to handle the question of how F1 cars handle grip levels on track surfaces. Maybe Perelli could fine tune their approach, but they are doing a better job these days than in the past, in my opinion.
    Also, resurfacing is expensive and polluting, and F1 wants to keep that triple star environmental accreditation!
    It might be an interesting video game parameter though.

    1. The FIA triple star accreditation is a joke. It’s like a father rewarding his son and telling the world how good his son is. Pathetic.

  2. I think if reduced grip was what you wanted to achieve, it’ll be easier, cheaper, and a lot more environmentally friendly to just modify the tyres than to resurface tracks every year.

    If you want variability in the races, then allowing the grip to build year-on-year will provide some of that. Tyres will do some more, even just with annual variation in composition. And you could always send out a truck to scrub the track to remove rubber too.

  3. My comment about Lance Stroll is this. Telling your Boss that you can’t do any better at all, usually gets the door shown to you. If he was right at the edge of getting P1 race after race, then I could accept this. Typical kid response and maybe adding a “solution” when stating that you can’t do more to the interviewer is better than what is written in the article. . It looks better and says much about dedication. Most teams would consider a driver change when a driver like
    Lance complaining and is overrated based on performance from arguably the best copy of the Mercedes this season.

    1. What he’s said is that he can do nothing now about the events of the past. He hasn’t said he can’t do better in the future, just that continuing to dwell on the past will not achieve anything. He’s saying he has reflected on it, identified mistakes he made, identified situations where he didn’t make mistakes but suffered anyway, and having done that reflection he’s looking ahead to the remaining races to try to achieve good results.

      1. If the quote is verbal ie. he didn’t put the full stop in, he might even specifically be talking about missing a race due to Covid.

    2. can’t do any better at all

      Stroll didn’t say that; he merely mentioned (correctly) that he cannot change what happened in the past.
      He even explicitly said that he “could have done differently” and made “mistakes”; that’s what a boss wants to see rather than dwelling on missed opportunities.

      It’s a bit like when you comment hastily on a headline on Racefans.com rather than reading the detailed comment first, and totally missing the point.
      Without an edit button there is nothing you can do about that now, other than recognising that ‘in hindsight, there’s definitely some things that could have been done differently’, and take that as a learning opportunity.

  4. I didn’t read it like that at all. More that he can’t do anything about what has happened in the past so there’s no point dwelling on it. He’s definitely taken responsibility for his share of poor showing in the quote provided, especially this bit:

    In hindsight, there’s definitely some things that I believe I could have done differently. There’s been some mistakes that I’ve made in some of the races that cost me some points.

    That definitely sounds to me that he knows he hasn’t made the most of the package and wants to improve, certainly not that he can’t do any better.

    1. Yeah, that is almost certainly what he meant @tommy-c. And that makes a lot of sense. Just move on and get things done, learning from the bits where he does know he could have done better.

  5. How does a dumb comment like this become COTD?

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      13th November 2020, 3:57

      @macca – It doesn’t – you’ll never get COTD with a dumb comment like that. You have to write something interesting. Have a look at todays COTD as an example and then try to think of something interesting to post.

    2. It is as shortsighted as Vettel’s comment about unmapped cars…

    3. My comment of the day is totally invalidated by your logic @macca
      Note I didn’t recommend resurfacing any tracks if that’s your concern.

  6. Here’s a better quote from the SJ blog:

    If you take Lewis Hamilton or Michael Schumacher for instance, I don’t think anyone can dispute that they are or were the best at what they do at the given time that they’re doing it. But unlike Scott, they had the luxury of only having to beat their teammate or maybe one other car in a good year.

    Unlike this quote which is a bit off. I don’t think it can be said for sure because we’ve not seen any other top rated drivers in the car other than Nico who competed close to equally.

    if it weren’t for Lewis Hamilton there would have definitely been more races won by Red Bull

  7. So… The FIA (sanctioning body of F1) has given themselves (and F1) the three-star FIA environmental accreditation. Must have been difficult to achieve.

    1. Username checks out.

    2. yes, much like the leader of the Overtaking group gave itself a technical advantage to win the championship…welcome to F1

      1. @uneedafinn2win if you are referring to Ross Brawn, he was not the head of the Overtaking Working Group.

        When it was set up back in 2007, the head of the Overtaking Working Group was Charlie Whiting – he then appointed Pat Symonds (Renault), Rory Byrne (Ferrari) and Paddy Lowe (McLaren) to develop the new technical regulations. Whilst the team principals from different teams, including Ross Brawn, were consulted and could contribute to that work, it was Symonds, Byrne and Lowe who produced the final rules – so, you can’t accuse Brawn of writing rules to give his team an advantage when he wasn’t on the panel that actually produced those rules.

  8. I get the point that COTD is making, but resurfacing each track every year would be impractical in terms of cost and sustainability. Also F1 would definitely lose that 3 star award it only just gained!

    1. Rather than resurfacing their 3 star rating, they could visit different tracks/cities every year.
      More unpredictability; more changes for fans to visit a race nearby; more opportunities for FOM to get top promotional monies from the cities/countries they visit.

      1. #ahstag it is barely sustainable for circuits to host an F1 race every year. Hosting a GP on and off every two or three years is going to be even harder to justify economically. We usually see circuits sign up for long term deals of 5-10 years so that they have economic stability that they can plan for. Maybe street circuits would be more suitable for a one year off one year on type model, but there are still going to be some organisational and infrastructure costs that are harder to pay back while receiving half the revenue from F1.

  9. An obvious trend downward is not a rollercoaster Lance. Didn’t daddy buy you one?

  10. Stroll has never struggled for anything. Silver Spoon firmly in place. This continues with latest play toy, an F1 team.
    Viewers may struggle to watch Stroll and other rich kids go round F1 tracks during 2021.
    Formula E with twin engine 4 wheel drive should be good, will they pounce on the opportunity as F1 goes Hybrid again. 6 more years of Merc wins then? Bring back Rosberg, Hamilton is beatable.

  11. Nobody mentioned Vips on the most recent poll. I feel RB are more interested in him than in Tsunoda.

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