David Coulthard, a former Formula 1 driver turned pundit, reflected on the poor performances of Lance Stroll so far this season, insisting Aston Martin cannot keep making excuses for him.
Aston Martin showed up for the 2023 F1 season with a decent piece of kit in the form of the AMR23, a car that Fernando Alonso has steered to six podium finishes in the first eight races this season, while Stroll on the other hand has a fourth place in Australia as his best result so far, while the most worrying fact remains his deficit to Alonso in Qualifying, only beating him once in Spain.
Granted Stroll injured his hand ahead of pre-season testing after a cycling accident, meaning he missed the tests in Bahrain, but after eight races this season, he should be up to speed, that is if he has that speed.
In Canada, Stroll’s home grand prix, Stroll qualified a lowly 16th in an upgraded AMR23, Alonso was third fastest and started second after second place Nico Hulkenberg got a penalty, also finishing second behind Max Verstappen, Stroll was ninth.
Aston Martin Team Principal Mike Krack praised Stroll’s Canada drive; he said: “It was good to see Lance make a great comeback and score valuable points.
“He was heavily disadvantaged by the Safety Car. It came out a lap after his first pitstop, which cost him several positions and undid much of his hard work in the opening laps. He kept his head down and recovered well to take ninth place on the final lap,” he explained.
But many are now questioning whether Stroll deserves his F1 seat, which with the current form Aston Martin are having, is a very attractive one, while other talents are sidelined, just because Lawrence Stroll, Lance’s father, owns the team.
Speaking to the Formula for Success Podcast, following the race in Montreal, David Coulthard said: “Is it any surprise in one of the most difficult transitional qualifying sessions that you’ve seen this year, and in Monaco as well, that one young, brilliant talent and an older brilliant talent find their way onto the front row?
The stopwatch doesn’t lie
“I’m not saying Lance isn’t good enough, he’s won everything all the way through his journey towards F1. There’s been some elements of misfortune in his run this year,” Coulthard pointed out.
“But there’s a point where you can’t keep making excuses. This is a stopwatch competition, and at a certain point that is what will dictate what teams choose to do in the future,” the former McLaren and Red Bull driver insisted.
Joining Coulthard in the discussion, former F1 team owner Eddie Jordan added: “Here’s a question: you own Aston Martin and have poured fortunes and fortunes of your own money [into it]. And there’s a huge amount of sponsorship money.
“What do you say to the sponsors who have come to you when they ask you the question, ‘Are you sure that Lance can do the job that we need to do to get this team to be a winning constructors team?’
“I want to know: if you’re Lawrence Stroll, what do you answer?” the Jordan mused.
Indeed, Stroll senior has funded his son’s racing career so far, always making sure he had the best equipment and the best teams until he reached F1, and while he couldn’t find a top seat for him he bought a team and spent a fortune on it, and the work is now starting to pay off with Aston Martin now fighting Mercedes for second in the Constructors’ Championship.
But had Lance been scoring points as much as Alonso, Mercedes – with two regularly scoring drivers – wouldn’t have come close to Aston Martin, at least not so soon in the season.
It just makes one wonder, is Aston Martin a serious F1 venture, or a father-son pet-project? If it is the former, Lance has to step up, or Lawrence has some serious thinking to do…