Mind you, those latter two were absolutely stepped on by other new generation talents when they were/are teammates. He couldn’t beat Massa, Perez walked all over him, and Vettel doesn’t seem to have much competition from the guy. He has only beaten a teammate once in his five years of F1, and that was Sirotkin of all people. ![]() Lance Stroll, hailed by Claire Williams as the next Max Verstappen when he debuted way too soon in F1, has a progression curve that’s next to non-existent and it shows every year in his stats. He failed to progress beyond Q1 seven times, more than twice as often as his team mate, often leaving himself with more to do in the races. They tangled again in Sochi when Stroll floundered as rain began to fall (he also knocked Gasly into a spin).Īs in previous seasons the key weakness in Stroll’s game was qualifying. He dealt with Vettel very firmly on the first lap at Monza – a bit too firmly for a driver in the same car – on his way to seventh place, which was his best finish of the year at that point. The next day he crashed again, this time blamelessly due to a tyre failure, while Vettel coincidentally also came home second.Īt times it felt as if Stroll had become a bit too eager to keep his team mate behind when the chance arose. Of course Vettel’s second on-the-road in Hungary (before his disqualification due to a technical infringement) came about thanks to a colossal error by Stroll at the start which wiped out Charles Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo.Įighth in Monaco was typical of Stroll’s better daysTo be fair to Stroll, such errors were rare, though he did crash his car in qualifying at Baku as well. In the races which followed Vettel grabbed opportunities for top-five finishes while Stroll never looked like making it that far. Vettel qualified and finished ahead of Stroll in Portugal despite not having the team’s latest aerodynamic parts. ![]() Within a few races of joining Aston Martin, Stroll’s new team mate had the measure of him. Wasn’t that to be expected, given Vettel’s experience and exceptional track record? Perhaps, but keep in mind Vettel was comprehensively beaten in 2020 by a driver with 20 fewer starts to his name than Stroll. Yes, he picked up nine points finishes, but all of the team’s noteworthy results were taken by Sebastian Vettel. Like the podium finish in his eighth F1 start or pole position at Istanbul last year: Something to vindicate his doubters and vex the vocal critics who question whether he would be in F1 at all if his father didn’t own his team.īut despite being in the same (albeit rebranded) team for the third year in a row, Stroll’s 2021 form didn’t run to the usual pattern. But he has usually been a dependable finisher who would occasionally grab an eye-catching result.
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