“You’d Feel Like Crying”- Lance Stroll Reflects on Dealing With Hate in His F1 Career

Of the many drivers that are currently on the grid with their life stories, there lies a paradox among them. And that is Lance Stroll. The young driver came into the limelight early in 2017, when he first started racing for Williams in F1.

He had just won the FIA F3 Championship the year before and hushed whispers surrounded him on the tracks. The whispers endure, but for different reasons.

Lance Stroll’s trajectory in the sport under the protection of his father, Lawrence Stroll, begs the age-old question- success earned or success bought?

Talking on Natalie Pinkman’s ‘In The Pink’ podcast, Lance stated, “Everyone has their opinion. I just do my talking on the track and I try and stay in my own little bubble and block out the negativity and the outside noise.

“So there’ll always be outside noise, there’ll always be negativity. I just try and keep it positive and listen to the people that are close around me. As well on social media, when I’d do well it would all go quiet. All the hate and all the noise would just disappear.

“And then when I do bad again it would all come back, it would all restart. So I saw that pattern very early on. And to be honest, I mean, you’ve got to laugh at it, because if you don’t laugh at it, you’d feel like crying. So I’m trying to take it lightly to be honest,” declared the young Canadian.

Lance Stroll has had to make his way up the ranks

There is no question that Lance has definitely had to work hard, as far as racing on the track is concerned. He started his career in the Florida Winter Series before going on to win the Italian F4 Championship.

Stroll added another feather to his cap when he won the Toyota Racing Series with a 108-points lead over Brandon Maïsano. He subsequently won the F3 European Championship in 2016 under the banner of Prema Powerteam, the outfit that he drove in F4.

Currently, in his fourth season in Formula 1, Lance Stroll is aiming to reach further heights. His motivation are skillset are looking to get a major boost now that Sebastian Vettel has been confirmed as his teammate.

He knows that there is work to be done with the Racing Point car, which has impressed so far this season. It is, however, unclear whether Aston Martin F1 will retain the Mercedes-AMG engines or develop an engine of its own.

Regardless, Lance Stroll will focus on strengthening that positivity bubble of his. And as things go on, he will let his racing do the talking for him.