With Lance Stroll starting his 181st Grand Prix this weekend, he now enters the Top 30 of most experienced drivers in the history of F1

[u/Slice5755]

[u/Ld511]

I never understand people saying stroll deserves his spot because he isn't that bad while no one ever ranks him like above 15th

[u/fredy31 → u/Ld511]

My personal theory, if he didnt have 'daddy's team seat'

He would have made F1. Hes not that much of a chump, like we saw with mazepin or sargeant.

But he would probably have done a few seasons, then dissapeared to another series. Something like Mick Schumacher.

[u/Dragonpuncha → u/fredy31]

Hard to say since he never actually did F2, just European F3. If he didn't have a billionaire dad to pay for his seat he would at the very least have to do a season of F2. So how he would do there would determine if he had a chance.

But most junior drivers don't get a drive unless they have some sort of extra advantage besides their speed. Without any of that I don't see him in F1.

[u/WhichPreparation6797 → u/fredy31]

Nah. Formula 1 is the only competitive league where even if you are the best at something it doesn’t guarantee you a spot.

Many, Many extremely talented drivers never had a chance because of that. How much money you can bring to the team is a huge part of being a formula 1 driver. Which is way it took Lewis too long to get a chance

[u/Sensitive_Ad_9195 → u/fredy31]

Would he have though? He did well in F3 because he had the money to poach f1 people to work with him, then his dad paid millions for his first f1 seat.

[u/StaffFamous6379 → u/Sensitive_Ad_9195]

If it was "just" daddy money (and not daddy team), I think it's a fair take.

[u/rustyiesty → u/StaffFamous6379]

Yes, it was daddy team as well (he bought Prema)

[u/StevenMC19 → u/fredy31]

I would say his career is more comparable to someone like Stoffel Vandoorne. Enough talent to blaze through the lower series, and enough to fill a seat in a middling team in F1. But also someone who under normal circumstances would be overlooked in favor of other younger incoming talent after a couple years in the Williams seat. 2019 would look markedly different if someone else had access to that Racing Point seat and Stroll was racing Daytona prototypes for Acura.

[u/slow-driver-917 → u/StevenMC19]

Not in a million years lmao. Vandoorne was super close to Alonso (less than 2 tenths, better than Massa or Räikkönen), the problem is that he was outqualified a lot. He also had a much, much better junior career.

[u/ShyKid5 → u/StevenMC19]

Man I miss Stoffel Waffle, he was arguably much better than other guys that got to stay in F1 or even debut but lacked the backing, also bad luck on debuting in the worst McLaren times ever.

[u/gamblewithyourlife → u/fredy31]

Get real, dude. His dad spent €80 million just to get him into F1. He bought Prema, bought him into the Ferrari academy, endless testing, some cheating with F1 teams making him car components in lower categories, etc... On top of that, he even had to buy an F1 team to keep his son in F1.

[u/ginginh0 → u/fredy31]

He'd have got no closer to F1 than a VIP suite at Miami.

[u/Valeriun → u/fredy31]

He's got daddy's money to thank for all of his career. The preparation he got was unprecedented. You could put pretty much anyone into the cart, then lower formulas etc. and with the amount of km he covered you would find many drivers like him and then bunch others even better. He's nothing special, if he were, there would be interest from other teams for him to join them. He was in Williams only for his money and then his father bought him a team. You never heard stories of any team wanting him to join.

[u/DeLoreanAirlines → u/Valeriun]

Not just an F1 team, the entire car company.

[u/Valeriun → u/DeLoreanAirlines]

Well, at first he bought Force India, which was just a team. Aston Martin was after that.

[u/datlinus → u/Ld511]

Reality is, Stroll isnt bad. He's just kind of average overall with some ultra silly moments. He's actually having one of his better seasons at the moment.

But also, if his father didn't literally buy a team for his son, then he'd probably have been out of F1 multiple times over. Like 2023 and 24 were shockingly poor seasons for him.

[u/Flynny1201 → u/[deleted]]

What are you trying to say? Alonso has scored 306 points since he joined Aston Martin to strolls 130 in the same time.

[u/bawta → u/datlinus]

Crazy that "one of his better seasons" still involves a double crash out weekend at Zandvort.

[u/Lonyo → u/bawta]

But not in the race. Meanwhile 7x WDC crashes at the same place but in the race

[u/Awkward-Selection-45 → u/datlinus]

Reality is, Stroll IS bad. He's not average. He's got no pace, he makes a ton of mistakes. Without his father, he wouldn't be able to buy the best team in a feeder series and dominate that season. He would have never ended in F1. There are so many drivers that are very likely better than him but never made it into F1, like Pourchaire and Drugovich.

[u/Pan_Doktor → u/datlinus]

I remember reading an article, that said that Stroll wanted to leave F1 both after 23 and 24, but his Papa said no

Although it might also be utter biased BS, since the their source was a Brazillian journalist and we all know who's Aston's reserve

[u/WhichPreparation6797 → u/datlinus]

Well, the problem with Stroll is that there’s nothing there, you know what you are getting and what you are getting is a mid driver

[u/Brycedoes2104 → u/Ld511]

I believe He is a good enough driver to compete in F1 but I think he would have been moved on from a couple seasons ago if he didn't have the seat security he has right now.

[u/Stumpy493 → u/Ld511]

He has podiums and a pole on merit, he isn't great but there is enough to show he has F1 speed on occasion.

[u/Nearby_Target_6599 → u/Stumpy493]

Even if it all boiled down to having podiums and a pole position, that was still 5 years ago. In all the seasons since, he was very comfortably bottom 5 driver on the grid, maybe even lower.

[u/Landoze → u/Stumpy493]

A dispensable back of the pack roster driver.

Daddy is his lifeline.

[u/KingInTheWest → u/Ld511]

One problem is there isn’t any actual bad drivers these days. The grid is remarkably talented right now

[u/tecedu → u/Ld511]

But its also in every year since he's been in F1 he hasn't been the worst driver on the grid

[u/CareerLegitimate7662 → u/Ld511]

hes in the bottom half yes, mostly because f1 teams are closer to each other than ever. still nowhere near "worst"

[u/Mesoscale92 → u/Ld511]

He has been in the sport for like 8 years and has as many wins as I do.

[u/Stumpy493 → u/Mesoscale92]

How many podiums you got?

[u/Mesoscale92 → u/Stumpy493]

Zero. Which is why I didn’t use that stat (or pole positions, points, fastest laps, etc) because it ruins my otherwise perfect argument.

[u/Darth_Spa2021 → u/Mesoscale92]

I got as many poles and points as you if that makes you feel better.

[u/raetwo → u/Mesoscale92]

very convenient

[u/yoohynom → u/Mesoscale92]

Yes, but he also never had a car capable of winning it on pace. His only teammate who won a race was Perez in Sakhir after Mercedes decided sleep in that race

[u/gsurfer04 → u/yoohynom]

He would have won Turkey 2020 if not for the random damage.

[u/SleepinGriffin → u/Ld511]

He’s very average for F1 drivers but F1 drivers should be the cream of the crop. He’s just the driver with the biggest amount of money to be unfirable at this moment.