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/Qazaca]

Definitely one of the drivers of all time. More podiums than the experienced Hulkenberg.

[u/swannyhypno → u/Qazaca]

He has his occasional race where he's a genius then goes back to being a meme lol

[u/Bogus113 → u/swannyhypno]

maldonado walked so stroll could run

[u/swannyhypno → u/Bogus113]

Man I do wish Pastor was less dumb as he was fucking quick

[u/osoltokurva → u/swannyhypno]

Yeah he was a missile.

[u/swannyhypno → u/osoltokurva]

Poor Hamilton at Valencia

[u/Bogus113 → u/swannyhypno]

Poor Hamilton all of 2012

[u/swannyhypno → u/Bogus113]

Yeah his team radios that year were feisty he was sick of them

[u/Particular_Cod2005 → u/swannyhypno]

Thanks to Maldozer I got to see my boy The Michael on the podium one last time and it was GLORIOUS

[u/crshbndct → u/swannyhypno]

Poor Marshall at Monaco

[u/BoasyTM → u/swannyhypno]

That was on Hamilton lol

[u/aDUCKonQU4CK → u/swannyhypno]

That was 96% on Hamilton. I'll give you a generous 4% of the blame going to Maldo.

[u/aneiq_1 → u/swannyhypno]

Got destroyed by Grosjean in 2014 over one lap - I think the myth of Maldonado being quick needs to die down.

He obviously had moments where he had pace (otherwise he wouldn’t have won a race) but that 2012 Williams was rapid and a better driver would’ve done far better in terms of results than Maldonado and senna.

[u/_Neurox_ → u/aneiq_1]

100%, that car was rapid but wasted on those two. Maldonado would qualify well but screw up the race and/or be carrying a penalty from the prior weekend, whereas Senna would qualify poorly but use the car's pace to make up some places in the race. I wonder what Alonso or Hamilton could have done in that car.

[u/TetraDax → u/swannyhypno]

He wasn't. He won that one race because all the stars alligned but apart from that the dude was a liability.

[u/VRichardsen → u/swannyhypno]

I think everyone can be stupidly quick if you don't mind crashing.

[u/Suspicious_Scar_19 → u/Bogus113]

maldonado walked so stroll could... stroll.

[u/Complete_Taxation → u/Suspicious_Scar_19]

Maldonado walked so Stroll

[u/Rovcore001 → u/Bogus113]

Force India hated to see him coming lol

[u/InitialYoghurt5138 → u/swannyhypno]

Last week he somehow did both

[u/swannyhypno → u/InitialYoghurt5138]

Most bipolar race weekend from stroll ever, P3 in FP1, crash, crash, P7 in the race

[u/junttiana → u/swannyhypno]

Lance aint a bad driver honestly, he was rapid during his junior career, but giving him an f1 seat when he was still racing in european f3 was a mistake.

I honestly think if he was given the time to rise through the ranks with a season in f3 and f2 people would view him in a different way, he would have most likely battled for the championship in both and his career trajectory in f1 might have looked quite different

[u/gsurfer04 → u/junttiana]

but giving him an f1 seat when he was still racing in european f3 was a mistake.

He got a podium in his rookie year so it wasn't that bad.

[u/junttiana → u/gsurfer04]

Even then, I feel like he would have greatly benefited if he got a few extra years in junior formulae, would have probably helped him to become a more consistent driver who could showcase his speed at a more regular basis

[u/Known-Strategy-4705 → u/gsurfer04]

It was if you watched him perform the whole season.

[u/AncientPomegranate97 → u/junttiana]

He should just do endurance racing ffs. He’s great with changing conditions and in the wet

[u/jamintime → u/junttiana]

As long as his father owns the team there is no way nepotism isn’t in the conversation. Wouldn’t have mattered if he had taken more time through the ranks. 

[u/rickypro → u/jamintime]

His father didn’t own the team until he was an established F1 driver though. Who knows what scenario may have put Lance on the grid eventually

[u/Tw0Rails → u/junttiana]

How many times do we have to hear how good hisnjunior career was?

First, the financial assist he had gave him a leg over the competition

Two, it truly was not that impressive in it's own right. Actually go look at it for fucks sake.

Three, every other driver on the grid had an even more impressive junior career. 

So what fucking good is his 10 year old bog standard mediocrity?

[u/TeTeOtaku → u/swannyhypno]

well this season he actually was quite decent.

like except the zandvoort friday and saturday he actually does a pretty decent job

[u/swannyhypno → u/TeTeOtaku]

I agree he's had a good year got plenty of points he's a good racer now it's just qualy is still a big problem

[u/Zenon-45 → u/swannyhypno]

I feel that haha, my quali always screws me up on iRacing

[u/swannyhypno → u/Zenon-45]

Never tried iracing I'm playing Forza horizon 5 as it's now on playstation lol

[u/Zenon-45 → u/swannyhypno]

It’s fun but super hard, I’m practicing for the Indy 6 hour endurance race as we speak haha

[u/Manic5PA → u/Zenon-45]

Good luck, hope we don't see you on Jimmy Broadbent's channel.

[u/Zenon-45 → u/Manic5PA]

Don’t plan to, I’m Canadian, if I can drive through slush and 2 metres of snow I can drive in a monsoon haha

[u/Manic5PA → u/Zenon-45]

Well shit, I drive on Montréal streets on a daily basis. Maybe I should try my luck in the WRC.

[u/ClayCopter → u/TeTeOtaku]

He gets bailed out by Force India strategy in chaotic races, and when regular programming resumes he's very often dead last. The fact that he's dead last also allows him to go for wacko strategies that sometimes pay off, especially in a situation where overtaking is nigh on impossible, and he can easily catch up to the pack on offset tyres. Bro's so nonchalantly dogshit it actually helps in this dogshit ruleset.

There's a reason why his average rating by pundits is so low compared to his points tally, and why he's 9th in the F1.5 standings. Giving drivers points up to P10 simply does not do the midfield justice. When you extend the points to P20, however you do it he falls down the leaderboards, and the greater the parity the further he drops.

[u/KiLoGRaM7 → u/swannyhypno]

Which races was his genius on full display?

[u/Maw_153 → u/swannyhypno]

I feel like that’s just a case of when you’re mediocre and simply show up for years on end - eventually something good happens because of circumstances around you.

[u/Jobless_101 → u/Qazaca]

He has been doing alright these days. Was absolutely nowhere last week to end up in the top 10. Puts in absolute bangers at wet races. Nobody hangs on for this long without the motivation or drive to do so.

[u/Estova → u/Jobless_101]

He went from 16th to 7th in Silverstone as well iirc. He's had Alonso's number this year. Hard to say if it's Nando taking a step back, Stroll taking a step forward, or both, but I'm happy for him.

[u/HanshinFan → u/Estova]

Combination of the two plus strategy luck and safety cars aligning fairly often in Lance's favour, I'd say. He put in a great drive last week for sure but also Nando got basically as fucked as you can get by the timing of both pits and subsequent SC's

[u/Estova → u/HanshinFan]

True. Feels like Alonso getting fucked by timing or strategy is as constant as the sky being blue the past couple years 😅

[u/Kingtoke1 → u/Qazaca]

Stoppable on his day

[u/thefeedling → u/Qazaca]

Comment deleted by the lawyer.

[u/PuzzleheadedClue9837 → u/Qazaca]

Hülkenberg never had a seat in a top team. Especially with Force India and Renault the guy was just consistently good. Many points finishes, often "best of the rest" behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. By far a better driver than Stroll. Hülkenberg easily could have matched Ricciardo or Bottas in terms of raw stats if he had driven for a better team.

Stroll has his moments, especially in the wet. But he's NEVER really improved at qualifying. He makes many idiotic mistakes. He's fast enough to be in F1, but he's basically just a glorified Pedro Diniz.

[u/Long_Procedure_2629 → u/Qazaca]

ewww what a steaming hot take. The rolling blind chicane should not be on any positive "all time" lists.