r/AstonMartinFormula1 • u/Slice-of-gin • 18d ago
Discussion How Does This Sub Feel About Lance?
I love F1 and think that Lance is a scourge on the sport. He is a terrible driver and because he holds a seat it spots younger drivers from getting an opportunity. How does this sub feel about him?
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u/SirFister13F 18d ago edited 18d ago
Lance suffers from loft. Lack of fucking talent.
Stroll versus all teammates (teammates-Stroll):
(Bear in mind, this is only results from the 167 races in which he’s competed)
Total points: 582-287
Podiums: 10-3
Points finishes: 90-60
DNF/DNS/DSQ: 19-30
The only season where he finished above his teammate was 2018, when he beat Sirotkin (ha) by 5 points. Here’s the percentages for all the other years:
2017: 93% (Massa, Williams)
2019: 40% (Perez, RP)
2020: 60% (Perez, RP)
2021: 79% (Vettel, AM)
2022: 48% (Vettel, AM)
2023: 35% (Alonso, AM)
2024: 34% (Alonso, AM)
Total, 2017-2024: 49%
The numbers don’t lie. Lance has scored less than half of the points his teammates have, with 50% more DNFs.
He deserves to be in F1 about as much as any of us. He’s terrible. He’s not a rookie that you can say “oh but we expect issues, we brought him up too early, he’s learning” etc. He’s an established driver that’s high-bottom tier at best, who refuses to use his mirrors and blames everyone/everything but himself.
He’s the pay driver. Daddy bought a team solely for Lance to stay in F1. Without that, he’d be long gone. Hell, He likely wouldn’t have even started in F1 if it weren’t for daddy’s money. And unfortunately for the rest of Aston Martin, they’re never going to win a WCC with him in the team, even if Newey came in and created the 2026 version of the RB19.
In regards to a father loving his kid, though, Lawrence is in the running for dad of the year. That man has spent hundreds of millions of dollars just so his son can drive around in squiggly circles in a fast car.
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u/Old-Use-7690 17d ago
Keep in mind this was Massa who was forced to unretire and his performance was likely affected by the accident too
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u/Flaroud 18d ago
I would love for the f1 teams to all receive the same car at the start of the year. We would then see how good/bad they are. Lance is not very far from Fernando, compared to other teams/drivers. If they had a competitive car, would he be a top 10 lock? Who knows until Newey comes in and fixes that scrap…
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u/FlyAirLari 18d ago
I would love for the f1 teams to all receive the same car
I feel like that would take the whole joy out of the sport. It's always been about who can build the best car.
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u/TijayesPJs442 18d ago
Exactly- I tried getting into Formula E but there’s something garbagey about everyone having the same car
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u/Iamabus1234 Tina Hausmann 17d ago
But... not everyone has the same car. There are 6 different powertrain manufacturers in FE.
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u/Slice-of-gin 18d ago
Dude he's sucked every single year... its not a new thing. He's closer to a forklift driver
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u/EHGroundControlMajor Sebastian Vettel 18d ago
I'll go kind of against the grain here and say I haven't minded him, but mainly because he's not costing us championships. I don't mind him costing us 4th or 5th in the constructors championship because without him we don't get a brand new factory, Alonso, Newey, etc. The money has only come because he's driving for Aston Martin. If we come out next season as frontrunners and he's performing like Perez has this last half season I will 100% be on board with getting him out, but for now I can tolerate his slower pace because it's indirectly improving the team.
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u/Old-Use-7690 17d ago
Yeah, but AM clearly wants to be a team to be taken seriously and fight for wins and maybe even championships, but realistically that ain’t happening with Lance in that seat. Newey isn’t an auto win machine like people portray him to be and Red Bull being third in the constructors show that unless both drivers are doing their job, you can give them a rocket ship and they won’t be champions. I get that the RB20 isn’t the same as the RB19, but it’s still a competitive car and they were 3rd because of Perez
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u/wayneio 18d ago
For me it’s not even that he’s bad it’s his complete uncaring. He’s so entitled that he never gives a good interview, just “yep did bad oh well I’ll be back next week”. Compare that with Alex Alvbon who isn’t even fighting for a title ( or often even points) yet he’s got such passion about his race and the team. Stroll isn’t as bad as Latifi or Mazespin but he’s certainly going to hold the team back when it has a decent car.
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u/salvatore813 Fernando Alonso 18d ago
He wasn't always like this I believe, only in the last 2 years I think
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u/Corbotron_5 18d ago
I don’t think he’s a terrible driver, but I do agree that he’s taking up a seat that could be filled with any number of considerably better ones.
On the other hand, him being in that seat is the trade off for Daddy’s money, which is important for the team.
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u/LNhart 18d ago
There are some huge Lance fans on this sub, but I think it's pretty clear that he's the worst driver in F1 except for complete jokes like Latifi or Sargeant. He gets demolished every year. Alonso outscores him by a factor of three, Vettel and Perez roughly by a factor of two. We're talking about two seasons in each case. There's no denying this pattern, the sample size is luxurious. He's a very poor driver and you could have a lot more points with a better one.
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u/salvatore813 Fernando Alonso 18d ago
Now I am not defending lance here but maybe the worst driver on f1 is a bit too far? Sure he underperforms, hardly looks like he is motivated, but lance does have some achievements, some podiums and a pole, so statistically he is a bit far from the worst driver in f1?
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u/LNhart 18d ago
I don't think that's a very good way of judging drivers, as it doesn't account for the car and length of career and really depends on a few races where you might just get kinda lucky. I really think it makes more sense to look at how many points they score vs. their teammates.
And to be clear, I think there's usually one or two drivers that are worse. But I'm talking about drivers like Latifi, DeVries, Sargeant etc. People who are out of F1 very quickly because they are terrible. Of the drivers with decently long careers, I absolutely stand by Stroll being the worst, though I'm sure arguments can be made for him being only among the worst three or five.
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u/LiqdPT 18d ago edited 18d ago
lance does have some achievements, some podiums and a pole...
Lance has 3 career podiums, one of which was 7 years ago in Williams and the rest (along with his pole) were 4 years ago when the team was still Racing point.
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u/SirFister13F 18d ago edited 18d ago
Yet his teammates are getting wins and podiums in the same cars. His stupid to good ratio is at least 15:1.
Lance is the worst driver in F1. There’s no question.
Downvote harder, you morons. We know, this is your Lance circlejerk safe space. Don’t worry, though. We’ll never call him washed. He wasn’t ever good enough to call it “washing out”.
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u/LiqdPT 18d ago
Agree with you. Was replying to the guy who said "Lance gets podiums". Gonna go back and quote the bit it was replying to.
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u/SirFister13F 18d ago
It might’ve come across like I was arguing, but I intended it as supporting your comment.
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u/Vuk13 17d ago
Lance is definatelly not that great, bottom part of the grid for sure. But he is overhated and isnt as bad as some people say. I also think he improved as a driver and is better now than few years ago. Still at his current level maybe he could pass in a backmarker team but for a team with high ambitions such as AM he is definatelly holding them back
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u/Exotic-Interest 17d ago
He’s shite. Even the smaller teams would unlikely sign him today if he were to become a free agent despite his financial backing that he would bring.
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u/unknown74720 17d ago
The best solution for Aston Martin is to send him off to their Hypercar division and try and sainz Verstappen, Sainz, or Russell as his replacement.
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u/Old-Use-7690 17d ago
That is a spot on description of Lance. He’s a spoiled brat who gives 0 fucks and has been hogging a seat for like 8 years. At least Latifi has the humility to realize he couldn’t cut it and left the seat to someone who was suited to F1(well turns out it was someone who was not suited for F1, but that’s on Williams). the way I see it, people aren’t AM fans, they are Alonso fans and AM will never be a serious team with that spoiled nepobaby in it
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u/Alone_Gur9036 18d ago
I don’t think he’s a bad driver, typically he’s not far behind alonso, and I really don’t think that car’s very fast. If we’re going off point totals then sure, he’s always behind his teammates, but relative position’s arguably a fairer indicator of performance. He comes across as a bit lazy? In that he’s actually a decent driver, but he just does it a bit half heartedly
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u/bleepbeepclick 18d ago
I might not be the same as the majority, but I like him.
Is he the best? No. Is he going to win championships? No. Are there better drivers and he's taking up a seat? Yep.
But guess what, he's still not the worst on the grid and who knows,... He might OWN the team one day and having insight as a driver will help.
(Also the troll aspect for myself.... it's fun to tell people I support Lance just to watch them squirm and not know what to say)
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u/Left4Bread2 18d ago
That’s a fairly common sentiment here. There’s a contingency of fans who for some reason like him but right now the big pain points for the team are Stroll and the car
Thankfully the latter will be fixed next year (hopefully)