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'Rich kid' Lance Stroll continues to infuriate by blaming Monaco crash on PlayStation game
Few in Formula One have encapsulated the callowness of youth as memorably as Lance Stroll.
Not content with earning his place at this level thanks to his fashion mogul father’s billions, or dismissing any objective critics of his driving as “haters”, the 18-year-old Canadian tried to excuse his crash at Casino Square on Thursday by saying that he had made the same mistake on his PlayStation.
In the less forgiving real world, alas, there was no opportunity to reboot and start again. Stroll is racing for Williams, a fabled F1 team that has produced seven world champion drivers, and yet he still seems to regard the privilege as akin to playing a computer game. In five races he has acquired not a single point and began his preparations for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix with another lapse in concentration that launched him straight into the steel barriers.
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Referring to his struggles at two of Monaco’s trickiest corners, Portier and Rascasse, “It really p----- me off, because every time I play the PlayStation game, it’s always those corners that I can’t get right, and in reality it’s still those two corners.”
Time is fast running out for Stroll, who secured his ticket to the big time mainly on the strength of dad Lawrence’s fortune, made courtesy of a huge investment in clothing giant Tommy Hilfiger. But with five failures in races, including three retirements, he has done nothing to justify the extraordinary faith shown in one so young.
Williams have developed a habit in recent years of choosing drivers less on pedigree – Pastor Maldonado, who came with £29 million of annual sponsorship from Venezuela’s state oil company, was so accident-prone he became known as ‘Crash-tor’ – than the money they can bring in. Stroll is another dubious addition to the trend.
“I come from a background that when I win, people try to put me down, and when I lose, people try to put me down,” he said. “I accept that and I actually find it kind of funny.” Despite the pressure, he has been at pains to defend his credentials, pointing to the fact that he won titles at junior levels. There is little precedent, however, for any driver rising to the elite, as Stroll has done, after a mere three seasons in single-seaters.
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He is unlikely to be amused much longer, as senior team-mate Felipe Massa eclipses him for performance. By some estimates, Stroll Snr spent over £50 million to seal him an F1 seat for his son, gathering all the simulators and engineering expertise money could buy, but with each race that passes this appears less a shrewd financial move than a family vanity project.
One who adapted more seamlessly to the Monaco test in practice yesterday was Jenson Button, finishing 12th on the afternoon time-sheets in a McLaren that has typically been rooted to the back of the grid.
The team’s decision to re-enlist the 2009 world champion for one race early, as a replacement for Fernando Alonso, busy chasing his Indianapolis 500 dream, looks an astute one. Button has lived in the principality for 17 years, building a knowledge of the track far more nuanced and subtle than any PlayStation could give. It did not prevent an outburst over team radio, mind. “People still drive like ----s,” Button shouted at one point. “Some things never change.”
There are signs that Sunday’s grand prix could be more of an even contest than the recent displays of dominance by Mercedes and Ferrari, with Red Bull re-entering the equation. Daniel Ricciardo set the second fastest time of the afternoon behind Sebastian Vettel, raising hopes that they could yet gatecrash the duel of the big two by the time they receive their long-awaited Renault engine upgrade.
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The moment seems ripe, then, for Ferrari to seize their first victory on the Côte d’Azur since 2001. There will be a sombre mood on the grid on Sunday as F1 pays its respects to the 22 victims of the Manchester terror attack, with Mercedes confirming that both their cars will be emblazoned with expressions of sympathy.
Mercedes, curiously, were far from their supreme best, as errors with data settings left Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas eighth and 10th in the second session. “Something went wrong – the tyres weren’t working,” Hamilton said. “We have to find out why.” Concern was equally evident in team principal Toto Wolff, who acknowledged: “There was a lack of grip and we were out of the window everywhere.”
