“Going Bad to Worse With Lance”: Ex-Ferrari Boss Condemns Stroll’s $50,000 Blow-Up

Go back to the start of the 2023 season. As shocking as it may sound, given the current state of affairs, things went from bad to good for Lance Stroll. A few weeks before the five lights went out for the first time in 2023, Stroll got into a biking accident. Sitting out the first race in Bahrain wouldn’t have been how the Canadian wanted to start his seventh season in F1. So he ensured he didn’t. He underwent surgery, recovered, and turned up for the race fit to go. The best part? He achieved one of his best results of the season that weekend with a P6. That should tell you how the rest of the season has panned out for him, but here’s a refresher.

While his teammate Fernando Alonso raked in podium after podium, Stroll was doing a considerably okay job. With Alonso’s P2s and P3s, his P6s and a solitary P4 were good enough to maintain Aston Martin’s P2 in the championship. Stroll knew he had work to do to improve, especially after he admitted that Alonso was faster than him. Instead of an upturn in form, the Canadian has only seen disappointment after disappointment. And it all blew up at the Qatar GP.

Lance Stroll was beyond himself after the Qatar GP qualifying

Aston Martin may have started the year as the second-best car on the grid. As the season progressed, though, it lost out in the development race to Mercedes, Ferrari, and McLaren. Now, it’s the fourth-best car at best. Even so, Alonso has been achieving commendable results, and as for Stroll? He isn’t. And he hasn’t been.

This season, Stroll has come to be known more for his bad performances than his good. That’s because the bad outweigh the good ones by a considerable margin. One incident that tipped the scales further in favor of the ‘bad performances’ was qualifying at the Singapore GP. Yes, the track is tricky, but Stroll is no stranger to it. Even so, he crashed out in Q1 and earned himself nothing but pleas to quit the sport. Three weeks later, he did it again.

Alonso has made it to Q3 at every race this season. The same can’t be said about Stroll. His qualifying form has been particularly bad; the one in Qatar only made it worse. After what felt like a long time, the AMR23 looked pretty good on track. What did Stroll do? Get eliminated in Q1. Once he got the news, he was understandably (but fashionably) furious. After he entered his garage, he unbuckled himself, detached his steering wheel, and threw it out of the car. The steering wheel is one of the most essential parts of an F1 car, so it makes sense that it costs a whopping $50,000. Whatever the situation, drivers usually handle steering wheels with care. But Stroll showed no regard and received criticism.

Former Ferrari General Manager Peter Windsor addressed the situation and Stroll’s form in his post-qualifying debrief. He said, “Lance Stroll, again, had an appalling weekend. Didn’t even get out of Q1. What is going on with this guy? His father has bought this team to enable him to win the World Championship, to win Grands Prix. That’s what it’s all about. ‘Get him out of the Williams. It was hopeless.’ Look where he is. I mean, it’s just going from bad to worse with Lance. In a very good car, Lance Stroll again failed to get out of Q1 in the other Aston Martin.”

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It’s no secret that Stroll isn’t in his happy place, mentally or career-wise. While his seat might be safe for as long as his father, Lawrence Stroll, owns Aston Martin, Lance’s behavior has been questionable recently. And his steering wheel antics weren’t the only point of focus.

Stroll lost a lot of people’s respect after qualifying

After Stroll threw out his steering wheel, he got out of the car and was visibly furious. It would’ve been fine had he taken his anger out on himself (or even on a less-expensive-that-a-steering-wheel non-living thing). What did he do instead? He took his frustration out on his physical trainer. A driver’s physical trainer is one of their closest allies. They know a driver in and out—everything from physicality to mindset. So when Stroll’s trainer tried to console him, Stroll shoved him a little. That was questionable, but still extremely slightly acceptable. He didn’t stop there, though. 

From what it looked like, he full-on pushed his trainer pretty violently. Whether it was into the garage wall or the corridor, it’s not easy to say. Either way, it was utterly unacceptable. His antics didn’t end there. Oh no, they didn’t. In his post-qualifying interview, his behavior was just as rude. While the interviewer asked him questions, trying to empathize with him, Stroll gave monosyllabic answers and used colorful language. 

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Needless to say, it wasn’t just Peter Windsor who condemned Lance Stroll’s actions after qualifying at the Qatar GP. It was almost every person watching him. What did you make of the situation?