As a team we have to fight and focus on every detail in order to win
Canadian Formula One ace Lance Stroll of Montreal finished 13th in the 2021 world championship and scored 34 points to his teammate Sebastien Vettel’s 43, but insists he doesn’t care about either points or victories going into the 2022 season.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Star and other media recently, Stroll – whose father owns the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 team – said it’s too early to set objectives.
“In 2020, we had a car that could fight for podiums and occasionally a win. Top fives, top threes, occasionally leading races and Sergio (Perez) did win a race.
“Last year, we were fighting for points-scoring positions, eighth, ninth, 10th so it’s a very relative position. You have to get the most out of the package you can. As a team, that’s what we focus on every year. As a team, we have to be very united and focus on every little detail we can to improve this car. It will be such a big learning curve to test and there will be so much to understand and learn and try.”
Last year Vettel outqualified Stroll 12 times and the Canadian scored 34 points while to his teammate’s 43 points. Stroll’s best result was sixth in Qatar, but he also finished seventh in Italy, took eighth in Imola, Monaco, Austria and Britain and ninth in turkey.
He’s a comer.
Asked if he would consider signing with Ferrari or Red Bull — both of which have contracts coming due at the end of the season – he had a flat-out no.
“We have some great things happening at Aston Martin, primarily the new team principal, Mike Krack. The previous principal, Otmar Szafnauer, moved to Alpine.
“Its very great to have Mike on board,” Stroll said. “I met him today for the first time but his CV, his history, he’s a great addition to the team and I’m very excited to work alongside him. I think he can really help us reach some of our goals.”
As any F1 fan knows, the big technological change this year is the size of the tires. Last year, for instance, the 13-inch tires that were used meant less rubber on the road and the new 18-year-inch tires mean more. He was asked whether he noticed the difference.
“They behave differently,” he said.
“We tried them on the old car at the end of last season, which was a completely different car than this year’s car. And I think there’s going to be a lot of difference with the new car and these tires. But the car behaved well, was more robust, there was less degradation, better wear rate and so-on.
“But it has its challenges. It’s a much bigger tire so the surface area on the ground is more, there’s more contact patch of the tire on the ground and when the tire does give up, it seems to go into more of a slide, which is harder to catch where, with the 13-inch, it was easier to catch small snaps but with this tire, which has a bigger contact patch, seems to give you a lot of grip but when it does go it doesn’t give you much warning.
“The tire is bigger and hard to see around. I’m glad I’m in my sixth season and memorized a lot of the corners because if I was in my first season it wouldn’t be easy.”
What can you do to be more consistent and what can the team do to make the car more consistent?
“Experience is always a great thing, and the more you’re out there the more you build on your
strengths. I need to work harder on my craft and get more out of myself. Learning more and more
about that every year and having a better understanding of the things to find speed is very important. As
a team we’re going to grow, with time, there are some very talented people who are very excited about
this project. And we see a lot of people joining the team that are new to the team and haven’t had a
chance to make an impact yet. The new factory, our new partners who have joined us, who are giving us
all the tools to grow as a team and hopefully to really fight at the front and challenge for race wins and
championships and that’s the goal.
“It’s an exciting time in Formula One.”
Stroll shot a hole-in-one during the off-season and enjoyed some good razzing.
“How was your off-season” he was asked. “It’s not every day that you get a hole-in-one. Are you planning to join the PGA tour?”
“Now, no, no, that was definitely the highlight of my golf career. It all went downhill from there. I didn’t have much to brag about other than the hole in one. I was out west in B.C. skiing with some friends for a few weeks (he lives in Switzerland and is still single) and managed to squeeze in a golf trip there too.
“Everything you need to recharge the batteries.”
Norris McDonald, a past Wheels editor in chief, covers the Canadian automotive and global racing scene for the Star. He is a member of the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame. [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @NorrisMcDonald2.
Keyword: Wins, points don’t matter to Canadian F1 racer Stroll