Lance Stroll takes stock of his debut season
So we’ve learned something about Lance Stroll, the Formula One rookie from Montreal: modesty, it seems, is not his strong suit.
Which is not necessarily a bad thing. If you’re going to claim your place among the world’s top race-car drivers, you probably need to show a little swagger.
So maybe it’s not surprising that when he was asked to rate, on a scale from one to 10, his performance during his freshman F1 season — which closes in Abu Dhabi on Sunday — Stroll reached for the high end of the scale.
“There is always room for improvement,” he was quoted as saying in Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport. “So it’s not 10. I would say a strong 8.5.”
Whoa, Lance. Slow down. There is room for improvement for all of us in our first year of doing anything, and 8.5 doesn’t leave nearly enough wiggle space.
Granted, Stroll has pulled off some impressive feats at the
wheel of his Williams — most notably his third-place finish in Azerbaijan, which remains the only time a driver not on a topthree team climbed the podium in 2017.
He sits a respectable 11th in the drivers’ standings going into this weekend’s finale at the desert Yas Marina Circuit, just two points behind teammate Felipe Massa, one of the most experienced drivers on the grid.
It would be a coup for Stroll if he could overhaul Massa under the flood lights on Sunday — the race begins at dusk — though even that probably wouldn’t elevate his rating to 8.5 in the eyes of most objective observers.
Number aside, some might object with his choice of qualifier: “strong” suggests “consistent,” which doesn’t accurately describe Stroll’s season of peaks and valleys.
Remember, he failed to secure a top 10 finish until his home Canadian Grand Prix — seven races into the campaign.
His efforts in qualifying have been particularly erratic. More often than not, he has been badly outpaced by Massa in an equal car. And yet, in Italy, Stroll became the youngest driver in F1 history to start a race from the front row, after he qualified fourth but was promoted to second because of grid penalties.
Clearly, the kid needs work on his qualifying form — as was recently made clear by Paddy Lowe, chief technical officer at Williams.
“He races very much better than he qualifies,” Lowe was quoted as saying on autosport. com.
“I think people look at qualifying as a reflection of a driver’s speed, because it is just very clear and easy to work it out from that. But that doesn’t reflect on Lance as perhaps it should, as it is his weaker area.”
He added: “Then you see glimpses of brilliance on that side with what he did in Monza, so I think he can unlock far better qualifying performances in due course.”
Sounds fair, though others have been far more critical. Jacques Villeneuve, for one, seems keen to tear into his compatriot whenever he’s given the chance. Asked what Stroll needs to show improvement, Villeneuve told motorsport.com: “A slower teammate.”
Well, OK. But he’s one to talk. I’ve mentioned this before: Villeneuve happened to be Massa’s teammate during a short stint of his penthouse-to-cellar career, and he didn’t fare so well himself.
In fact, in some ways, you might argue Stroll has done the better job. He’s finished ahead of Massa four times in the 11 races where both drivers reached the checkered flag. In 2005, Villeneuve beat the Brazilian to the finish line three times in 11 tries when they partnered at SauberPetronas.
Among the most thoughtful assessments of Stroll’s progress comes from Massa himself, who at 36 is retiring from F1 after Sunday’s race.
“He has improved a lot since the season began until now,” Massa said. “He has got much better, but it is too early to judge him.
“I think he has a good future in F1, but it depends on him — in the second or third year we will see where he is.”
The Stroll vs. Massa tussle for 10th in the standings is among several mini-battles to be settled in Abu Dhabi. The big prize — the drivers’ championship — was claimed by Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes with two races to spare.
Incidentally, Massa was asked, by the AS sports outlet, to name his picks of the top five drivers during his 15-year career. He named Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and, perhaps surprisingly, Max Verstappen.
Sorry, Jacques.