Lance Stroll is certainly a talent on the current grid albeit not the most massively exciting one in that other youngsters such as Lando Norris and Alex Albon have, by sheer weight of performances, made their presence felt.
They are being taken seriously whenever the talk about F1’s future being placed in great hands takes place; and that’s true for weather on or off the grid discussions.
The legend of the “last lap Lando” at Austria was formed in front of our eyes a couple of seasons ago. Then came the dominant pole performance at Sochi, which would sadly, result in a standard points finish. But Norris, who’d later outperform a biggie in Ricciardo at McLaren, was well on his way.
A few days back, all of us saw the grit and rigour of Alex Albon, the driver of the day at the Canadian GP, where despite driving a Williams, the Thai-British driver exulted on the basis of a nearly faultless drive.
Even if those were just six points, Albon helped Williams record his and their best race result in over a year.
But where are such highly talked about drives from Lance Stroll?
Where’s the show of grit and the hell May care attitude that the oldest driver on the grid is consistently and nearly faultlessly demonstrating race after race?
Whether Stroll, who has clearly struggled to find on track consistency, is battling form issues or whether he’s mentally not in the right frame of mind this year (from what’s transpired up to this point), is a debate for another day. It can well take place for an endless number of hours.
But truth is that, what needs to be questioned but perhaps isn’t is whether Lance Stroll has the motivation to perform great especially being in the know of things that a significantly powerful teammate in Alonso is his teammate.
It’s the sort of situation where in the 2012 and 2013 seasons at Mercedes, Nico Rosberg despite finding considerable pressure in having to pair against the great Schumacher, performed to his limit. The German-Finn left little to chance and excelled with commitment.
Is Stroll prepared to do that?
Let’s attempt to understand what may have been an issue at his end most recently prior to entering Canada.
When Lance Stroll entered the Spanish Grand Prix, he was, and perhaps ditto for his father along with several racing fans, certainly hoping for a great finish to the contest.
The primary reason wasn’t only that up until that point, the Canadian talent had finished only three Grands Prix in the points, these being the season opener at Bahrain and the Australian as well as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The main reason, it could be argued, was that the young driver at Aston Martin was lagging considerably behind an experienced marksman on the grid; Fernando Alonso, his very teammate.
The gap between Stroll and Alonso at that point was that of 66 points.
While numerically speaking, this was a burgeoning problem for the young driver. But in the context of just how far he was trailing the veteran legend of the sport could be understood by the fact that 66 points was the collective score that teams like AlphaTauri and Williams and another backmarker had scored at that point of the championship.
Moreover, what’s not helped Stroll’s cause a bit and might possibly have done some damage psychologically are the DNF’s he endured at Saudi Arabia and later, Monaco.
However, in both these outings, his own teammate scored podium finishes; Alonso’s drive at Monaco earning him huge regard in that despite battling inclement weather and a driver as defiant as Verstappen, the Spaniard kept the Aston Martin in the hunt.
But Stroll’s woes don’t end just there at the margin of gap he has to his own teammate, which by the way now, stands at 80 points (which is more than the points earned by winning 3 separate F1 races).
The Canadian Billionaire businessman’s son is now having to resurrect his form especially when compared to Esteban Ocon in his Alpine.
The Frenchman, just eight points adrift of Stroll and standing on ninth currently has already secured a podium finish and that too, at a track as testing to the very limit as Monaco.
Stroll, meanwhile, has lagged tremendously despite driving one of the fastest cars on the grid, which is anything but a midfield machine.
It can’t be that the set up changes between Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso can amount to such a considerable and pronounced gap.
The choice, in what lies ahead and what does is still a lot many races, rests clearly in his own hands.
And now it’s up to Stroll to pick up some points, learn by observing someone like the great Alonso or simply stay burdened by the onerous challenge of having to compete against a dazzling double world champion.
Fortunately, he won’t have to bother about being left out in the cold and dumped by a team for that call would not be such an easy one for someone who’s, literally speaking, a father figure at Aston Martin.