Congratulations to Lance Stroll for Completing his 1st Full Race This Year

[u/Affectionate_You_225]

First race for Lance this year where he not DNF'd or being lapped. Amazing job from him

Great weekend in general for Aston Martin. Alonso got points for the team and they had a pretty strong weekend

[u/Nepgyaaaaaaa]

I know it’s all a big meme but Stroll is genuinely WAY better in the wet for some reason. It’s like he unlocks a new level as soon as the rain starts.

[u/SomniumOv → u/Nepgyaaaaaaa]

Silly theory : He has a terrible feel for grip, and adapted to driving like that.
When it rains, everyone else loses that advantage they have over him.

[u/PascalG16 → u/SomniumOv]

Exactly. His strong point is reflexes, and has a poor feel for grip. Relatively to other drivers.

[u/Hot_Most5332 → u/PascalG16]

Honestly at this point his main issue seems to be his mental. As so many have noticed, he looks like he hates everything

[u/saposapot26 → u/Hot_Most5332]

I mean, in that car who wouldn't?

[u/CoffeeOrTeaOrMilk → u/Hot_Most5332]

Have generational wealth to inherit but forced to do something mentally taxing for a decade…

[u/CL-MotoTech → u/PascalG16]

It’s the other way around. The rain is generally much harder and harder to feel grip. Good drivers usually outshine their hardware in poor conditions.

Source: was race car driver

[u/primaryrhyme → u/PascalG16]

Also poor feel for fast driving, tire management and racecraft. Other than that he’s a solid driver

[u/tlst9999 → u/SomniumOv]

Stroll: You merely adopted "no grip" driving. I was born in it, molded by it.

[u/91Caleb → u/tlst9999]

The Canadian winter way

[u/TwoBionicknees → u/SomniumOv]

it's easier than that. you see him yanking his steering wheel all over through most corners, he has no feel for grip as you say. HIs constant steering wheel acting and sliding causes tire temp, he overheats and overwears his tires and has since day one. In wet qualifying this means incredible tire warm up when it's one of those sessions where getting the right lap in at the right time, pitting for new inters and then putting in a hotlap Stroll's excessive tire warm up is suddenly a boon. In wet races he shot off into the distance in turkey, for 5 laps, then his pace was gone. IIRC it was something like an 8 second lead over perez in 5-6 laps, then a few laps later he's pitting from a second ahead of perez before he's passed.

His dire tire wear and poor control works solely when super quick warm up for wet qualifying is great.

[u/proudlysydney → u/TwoBionicknees]

“Dire tyre wear” would be incorrect, looking back at Pirelli’s tyre graphics from the last couple seasons Stroll consistently pops up doing the longest stints on compounds during races. It’s not something a lot of people give him credit for but he can pull some good tyre management.

The other thing is also wrong- Fernando described Lance as being more sensitive to grip changes than he is (and therefore giving different feedback). He’s constantly adjusting his lines etc for the grip levels he feels, meaning that he finds it a lot more difficult to replicate a strong lap in quali- what worked for him the last lap feels different the next. In the dry it means he can struggle in quali finding perfection; other drivers find their ideal line and work to replicate it as much as possible, he can’t do that as much. Where that works is in the wet, where all drivers are doing that adjustment every lap, so it suits the way he normally drives.

[u/TwoBionicknees → u/proudlysydney]

“Dire tyre wear” would be incorrect, looking back at Pirelli’s tyre graphics from the last couple seasons Stroll consistently pops up doing the longest stints on compounds during races

which doesn't mean anything. Most people only pit for strategy, clear air, undercut, etc, literally every race 2-3 drivers just go long and do 20 laps more. He's always had abysmal tire wear and in races where tire wear matters, he's dire but those races are few and far between.

Prior to the races becoming primarily one stop and primarily done due to strategy and not because the tires are gone, he was popping tires when no one else did, and doing extra stops compared toe veryone else frequently. then the one stop era came in and the vast majority of tires can simply go 2/3rds or more of the race.

Qualifying so far back that the only good strategy is going as long as possible and hoping for a safety car doesn't make him good on tires, there is zero driver and zero car on the grid that can't do the same length.

How many races recently has someone pit off hard tires in a top car while someone else around them goes longer on the softs. The tires are a joke now, the softs were the fastest tire and hamilton pit for strategy NOT because his tires fell off, again.

he other thing is also wrong- Fernando described Lance as being more sensitive to grip changes than he is (and therefore giving different feedback).

Yeah, if you're more sensitive to grip, and struggle to find the right line every lap... when the track doesn't change every lap , that indicates you're simply on the wrong line every lap and can't find it... because you're ass.

Where that works is in the wet, where all drivers are doing that adjustment every lap, so it suits the way he normally drives.

nope, he's even not great in the wet except in the particular situation that he pits late, the track is the right time and the only problem people are having is tire warm up which stroll doesn't have because he thrashes his tires.

When it's wet but it's one of those sessions where there is enough time to warm up the tires, he'll be off the pace.

[u/Doorknob11 → u/SomniumOv]

I think it’s more that he drives mainly on feel specifically. Which in the dry is will only get you so far.

[u/slicerprime → u/SomniumOv]

So, when everybody else underperforms in the rain, he overperforms...relatively speaking. F1 Quantum Entanglement!

Stroll's new nickname is "Spooky Action at a Distance" 🤣

[u/georgeofjungle3 → u/SomniumOv]

Close to what I was going to say. He's completely unaffected by the rain, changes nothing about his performance. Real, I'm not locked in here with you, your locked in here with me energy.

[u/sysasysa → u/Nepgyaaaaaaa]

Unless he is in position to score points in Sochi.

Or do we collectively not talk about that?

[u/czerwona_latarnia → u/sysasysa]

I guess the correct way would be saying that Stroll is way better on Intermediate/Wet tyre.

Unless his Brazil (pre-)race performance was on those too.

[u/sysasysa → u/czerwona_latarnia]

Brazil 2024 he was on inters. So basically he is either really good, or really bad. No inbetween.

[u/Blithering_idiot1406 → u/sysasysa]

let us consider Brazil 2024 as an outlier. Even Max and Lewis have had those over the years..

[u/trivinium → u/Blithering_idiot1406]

You slip due to wet conditions, with cold tires, happens. But the way he put himself into the gravel to beach himself... that is the facepalm moment for me.

[u/TwoBionicknees → u/sysasysa]

stroll is good for tire warm up, he's done his best wet performances in qualifying and only qualifying. AM plainly made a huge step, they already got into Q2 in the dry, people are acting like AM had some massive step due to the rain, which maybe helped but Alonso was just as bad off as Ham in the rain till the safety car reset.

In actual wet races he's mostly bad, this one barely counts. Soft runners were slow today, but outside of a caddy, none actually had issues staying on track after a lap, they were just hella slow. Then the race turned into a dry race and that's where AM did pretty well.

[u/patricles22 → u/sysasysa]

“Lance are you good to stay out?”

“YES!”

Immediately spins out

[u/aenae → u/Nepgyaaaaaaa]

But it goes both ways. He also spun out in formation laps when it was wet

[u/MobileAtmosphere775 → u/Nepgyaaaaaaa]

Without any irony at all, basically all of his weird quirks in F1 would suit him amicably if he were to drive in WEC.

[u/shewy92 → u/Nepgyaaaaaaa]

Him and Goatifi, must be the Canadian winters

[u/MuchSalt → u/Nepgyaaaaaaa]

still remember that 1 wet race in pink mercedes

[u/thatsidewaysdud → u/Nepgyaaaaaaa]

I remember Turkey 2020 when he locked the fuck. I genuinely thought he was going to win as well.

[u/lathspellll → u/Nepgyaaaaaaa]

He usually has one spectacular race a year for some reason.

[u/ramlol → u/Nepgyaaaaaaa]

Brazil 2024 moment.

[u/Punished_Prigo → u/Nepgyaaaaaaa]

This isn’t even true. He’s had some absolute disasters in rain. Canada and Monaco were two races where he was absolutely shit.

[u/sellyme → u/Punished_Prigo]

Just about everyone's had some disasters in the rain, the thing that makes you a good wet weather driver is having had some sensational results as well.

[u/TwoBionicknees → u/sellyme]

Which sensational wet results has he had? He finished behind Alonso and both AMs got into Q2 in qualifying in the dry and most of this race was run in the dry.

He does well in wet qualifying and poorly in the massive majority of wet races.

[u/SixtySix_VI → u/Nepgyaaaaaaa]

Legitimately are people being serious with that or is this some kind of long term inside joke? Rain obviously increases variability in the outcome and reduces the advantage top teams have, so of course cars that normally finish in the back have a chance to improve through randomness, they can’t really do worse afterall.

And like also no shit he finished without being lapped, we had a million safety car laps up until a few final laps, everyone was caught up by then besides maybe Perez.