Lance Stroll has gone up in opposition to some powerful group mates in his System 1 profession. One a number of champion changed one other alongside him at Aston Martin final 12 months.
His father Lawrence Stroll clearly has the very best doable ambitions for the group he owns. For junior to play his position in that, he must at the very least display enchancment alongside drivers who’re rather more skilled than him and have been much more profitable than most.
That hasn’t at all times occurred. In 2022, his second 12 months alongside Sebastian Vettel, Stroll’s share of the group’s factors rating fell in comparison with the earlier season. And his problem solely obtained harder when Vettel’s alternative arrived.
The competition between the 2 Aston Martin drivers in 2023 was one of the vital one-sided on the grid. Fernando Alonso reached the rostrum eight occasions, Stroll not as soon as.
Even permitting for the damage Stroll carried into the beginning of final season, his kind alongside Alonso was poor. He adopted his group mate residence 14 occasions within the 16 races the place each completed, and was thumped 19-3 in qualifying. Stroll scored simply 26% of the group’s factors: Alonso out-scored him by virtually an element of three.
For his or her second 12 months alongside one another, and Stroll’s sixth season at his father’s group, each drivers had to deal with a automobile which was far much less aggressive than they loved the 12 months earlier than. Podiums had been not a critical prospect and by the tip of the season reaching the factors had turn out to be an achievement
Regardless of that, this was a barely higher season for the group’s junior driver. He even led Alonso within the qualifying battle at one stage, going 4-3 up in Monaco, however solely out-qualified his group mate as soon as extra over the remaining 15 rounds.
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Stroll additionally completed forward of Alonso extra usually than final 12 months. A kind of events got here in Australia, the place Alonso took the chequered flag earlier than his group mate, solely to fall behind as a result of his penalty for an unorthodox piece of defensive driving whereas being pursued by George Russell.
Regardless of that, there was one key metric the place Stroll didn’t present an enchancment in comparison with final 12 months, and it was the underside line: His contribution to the group’s factors whole. From that 26% final 12 months it slipped to 24%. It’s no coincidence that on the time of writing Stroll is within the longest point-less streak of his total profession.
Final 12 months Aston Martin’s failure to beat McLaren to fourth place within the constructors’ championship may moderately be blamed on Stroll’s failure to get as a lot out of their automobile as Alonso did. The identical can’t be mentioned this 12 months: The AMR24 was by no means realistically going to complete greater than fifth within the championship.
Nonetheless, given how slender McLaren’s successful margin over Ferrari was this 12 months, Aston Martin ought to ask themselves whether or not their present driver line-up would have delivered a constructors’ title had they constructed an MCL38.
Stroll vs Alonso in 2024
General scores
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Head-to-head
Qualifying efficiency
Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Unfavorable worth: Stroll was quicker; Optimistic worth: Alonso was quicker
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