IGNORING THE CRITICISM
Stroll puts focus on driving
After getting a tour through the team garage three days before the Canadian Grand Prix, I asked Graeme Hackland, the chief information officer of Williams Martini Racing, about Montreal driver Lance Stroll.
“The kid can drive,” said Hackland, who has been involved in Formula One for 20 years.
Hackland added that the 18-year-old Stroll just needed a confidence boost after failing to earn a point in the drivers’ standings in his first six races, finishing only two of them. Hackland said there would be no better place for that boost to come than on Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Stroll would finish ninth at the Canadian Grand Prix to earn his first two points and celebrated with fans at the track afterward while waving a Canadian flag. It was almost as if the kid had won the race.
Fuelled with some added confidence, Stroll finished third at last weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix to become the youngest F1 rookie with a podium finish and the first Canadian since Jacques Villeneuve in 2001.
You would think Villeneuve — who won the F1 drivers’ championship in 1997 — would be happy to see a young Canadian enjoying some success at the pinnacle of auto racing, but the 46-year-old has been one of Stroll’s biggest critics. After the Canadian Grand Prix, Villeneuve told autoweek. com: “Results speak for themselves. … It is one of the worst rookie performances in the history of Formula One.”
Maybe Villeneuve is still bitter about the way his own F1 career ended.
“I never retired,” Villeneuve was quoted as saying in a Road & Track article two months ago titled How do F1 champions know when to retire? “I was simply shown the door halfway through 2006, and then doors stayed closed. But I am not ready to hang the gloves. I am still a racer. All I am missing is a steering wheel!”
Stroll has one of those now — which might make Villeneuve jealous — and is steering in the right direction.
“I’m not surprised,” Stroll said during a conference call Thursday about negative remarks from Villeneuve. “I don’t really know him that well … I guess he can say whatever he wants and it won’t really shock me. I’ve heard in the past — I don’t really read his stuff or read anyone’s stuff — but I’ve heard he’s never really supported me. Even last year when I won the European championship in F3, he had excuses behind the reason I won. And this year, when I went through some tough times, he’s kind of put me down, so I guess it wasn’t really a shocker for me to hear what he said.
“I mean, it is what it is,” Stroll added. “I don’t really care … it doesn’t really bother me. People talk.
“What’s important to me is the people who are surrounding me and the people I work with. So he’s just a voice in the paddock and whatever. When it comes to putting a result on the table and silencing all the critics, I mean, that’s not what I do this for. I think it’s just noise in the background and I’m just happy for myself, for my team, for the people who are in this with me. All the haters, they’ll always hate.”
One of the reasons the haters might hate Stroll is the fact his billionaire father Lawrence helped pave his road to F1 with cash. Before the season, Villeneuve said Stroll deserved his seat with Williams despite funding from his father, reported to be as much as $80 million, and surely being the son of F1 driving legend Gilles Villeneuve helped Jacques during his career. Maybe Villeneuve doesn’t like the fact Stroll’s favourite F1 driver as a kid was Michael Schumacher.
“I think he’s just a really good example of a true champion on and off the track,” Stroll said of Schumacher, who won a record seven F1 championships. “Never too much emotion when it didn’t go well and he had his feet on the ground. He’s a humble guy and I think you got to respect that.”
While Stroll obviously appreciates everything his dad has done for him, the teenager surely must be looking forward to a day when almost every story written about him doesn’t include the line “son of billionaire father.”
“Whatever,” Stroll said when that question was put to him Thursday. “I’m just doing my thing. That’s it. That’s all that matters, just do my thing.”
Stroll earned 15 points for his third-place finish last weekend and now sits 12th in the drivers’ standings, only three points behind teammate Felipe Massa in 10th. Williams has moved into fifth place in the constructor standings with the Austrian Grand Prix up next on July 9.
Stroll celebrated his podium finish in Azerbaijan with the F1 tradition of drinking champagne out of the sweaty boot of the winner, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.
“It was the best champagne I’ve ever tasted in my life,” Stroll said.
Maybe the kid should send a bottle of bubbly to Villeneuve.
When it comes to putting a result on the table and silencing all the critics, I mean, that’s not what I do this for.