Lance Stroll booked an all-time F1 record with his disappointing performance in Saudi Arabia but has suggested that he is not totally to blame for his woes in qualifying over the weekend
Lance Stroll has suggested that his car has to take the blame after he secured a dismal F1 record. The Aston Martin star endured another disappointing performance at the Saudi Arabian GP.
Stroll finished 16th in Jeddah – that coming after he had been eliminated in Q1. It was the 75th time that he had dropped out at the first time stage since debuting in F1 with Williams in 2017.
That saw him secure the unwanted record of the most Q1 eliminations in F1 history, with Kevin Magnussen finally handing over the record. Asked about that, Stroll insists he is not totally to blame and suggested that had he had a better car throughout his career, he would not have come anywhere near the record.
“Yeah, Q1, I heard it on the speaker,” Stroll said post-qualifying to PlanetF1. “Put the McLaren drivers in the Sauber for 10 years and they will have the most Q1 exits. It’s car-dependent.”
“When you have fast cars, you save tyres, and you go through to Q3,” Stroll added. “When you have slow cars you throw a million sets in Q1 and most of the time you go out if that’s the kind of pace you have.”
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Stroll’s current Aston Martin teammate Fernando Alonso also gave his verdict on his new record. And he agrees with Stroll’s claim that had he had better machinery then he would have performed far better in qualifying.
“The unlucky thing for him is that he raced with uncompetitive cars for 90% of his career, which I think is brutal for any driver,” he said. “Lance had uncompetitive cars for many years and he is still happy to keep committing and dreaming of having a competitive car one day.
“This is some of the mission that we all have in Aston Martin as well, to have a competitive car. I don’t know if I will benefit from that, because as I said I will not drive forever. But I hope he can have one day a competitive car and change the opinion of many, many people.”
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Following his latest disappointment in Jeddah, Stroll sits tenth in the drivers’ standings with just ten points, albeit teammate Alonso is yet to pick up a single point throughout the campaign. Stroll will be aiming to avoid adding to his unwanted record during his next F1 outing. The next GP takes place in Miami on Sunday May 4.
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