It’s an inconvenient truth for Aston Martin, but the driver holding them back is the owner’s son – and 750 staff could lose out on big bonuses
- Lance Stroll’s form has fallen away in contrast to team-mate Fernando Alonso
- Staff receive bonuses for finishing in top three in constructorsā championshipĀ
- Stroll’s failure to score in Italy condemned Aston Martin to slip to fourth placeĀ
Poor Lance Stroll. Thatās not a phrase you hear often, seeing as he is the privileged son of a billionaire father who effectively bought a Formula One team for him.
But at this moment the 24-year-old Canadian is very much a prisoner in a golden cage. That is because his form is conspicuously wonky. He lies ninth in the driversā standings, with 47 points, compared to team-mate Fernando Alonsoās third, with 170.
More damningly, Alonso has spent just one lap outside the top 10 this season, Stroll 276 laps. Alonsoās average grid position is 5.6th, Strollās 11th.
Strollās failure to score at last weekendās Italian Grand Prix condemned Aston Martin to slip to fourth place in the constructorsā championship as Ferrari moved up. This has painful financial implications. Aston, like most teams, pay serious bonuses to their staff for finishing third or higher but precious little if they finish lower.
Suddenly, the 750 staff at their newly glistening factory at Silverstoneās gates are set to lose out on the dividend they could well have anticipated when the team started the season so brightly, as nearest pursuers to the all-conquering Red Bull.
Lance Stroll’s form (L) has fallen away in marked contrast to team-mate Fernando Alonso (R)
F1 teams pay big bonuses to staff for finishing in top three in the constructorsā championship
Indeed, Stroll performed reasonably well in that promising early phase, notably taking fourth place in Australia. That result suggested, as I have long believed, that Lance is not at all the worst driver on the grid, even if he is enabled by his father Lawrenceās clothes-flogging riches and ownership of the team.
But his form has fallen away markedly, the relentlessness and consistency of Alonsoās driving no doubt having seeped inside the younger manās head. One source close to the team told me of Stroll: āHeās increasingly lazy, listless, miserable and surly.ā
A clip on social media of the drivers leaving a Grand Prix Driversā Association meeting at the weekend showed him lost in his own thoughts. He looked downcast, in contrast to his peers who chatted animatedly among themselves.
So what to do? The best and simplest solution is for Stroll to buck up. But has he got it within himself to do so, in terms of hunger as much as talent? And could he ever live up to the bar set by Alonso, for whom racing is a way of life, an obsession even, in a way that it isnāt for Lance?
The next best outcome, and possibly the most realistic, is for Lance to call time on himself and make way for someone better equipped to propel Aston to the front (though that may not be the easiest conversation to have with his old man, who has spared nothing in bankrolling Lanceās journey into Formula One).
Unless one of the Strolls decides Lanceās position is untenable, nobody among the teamās hierarchy will pull the trigger. Take team principal Mike Krackās declaration at the Italian Grand Prix: āWe will be fine next year with the two drivers.ā
Well, he would say that, wouldnāt he? Saying anything else is a sackable offence. Stroll rules the roost, rightly as the owner ā everybody is scared to death of him.
Under Stroll is Martin Whitmarsh, a chief executive with a suitably grand office next to Strollās even bigger one. A cynic might say, as has been suggested to me, that Whitmarsh appointed Krack because he would pose no threat to him; rather, he can dominate him.
Krack, a competent engineer and a decent man, is team principal in name only. The idea of him standing up to Whitmarsh, let alone Stroll, is laughable.
It remains an open question as to whether Whitmarsh can extract the best from the excellent new senior engineering team established by former boss Otmar Szafnauer, the bedrock on which early-season success was built. The signs are not good. Aston are falling away rather than marching on as the campaign lengthens.
The Lance Stroll conundrum is an emblem of the decline. It needs to be arrested. But one big question then enters the arena. What future does Lawrence Stroll envisage for an Aston Martin sans his son?
Toto tried to get me fired twice!
I wonder whether Toto Wolff regrets his graceless remarks on Max Verstappen achieving a 10th straight win ā a first in 73 years of Formula One.
āCompletely irrelevant,ā sneered the Mercedes boss, compounding remarks he had uttered on Sky, dismissing the landmark as a stat āfor Wikipedia, and nobody reads thatā.
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff should be praising Max Verstappen for setting a new record
The Austrian likes to portray himself as an honourable fellow, the very essence of reasonableness and decency. But, of course, heās as ruthless as the next F1 executive. Times one thousand.
I know this from personal experience ā he twice tried to get me fired.
It is just that Wolff usually manages to dress his remarks in sheepās clothing. But it is seemingly easier to present yourself as a picture of sportsmanship in triumph than in defeat. Whatever Kipling may say. If I were Wolffās PR adviser ā a post he has strangely never offered me ā Iād suggest he looks again at his begrudging remarks and does himself as well as Verstappen a good turn by finding a tribute appropriate to match a historic first.
Sigh… no budget cap either
Formula One has exhibited a genius knack over the years for turning up something worth writing about as the on-track action has slowed.
So it was with a journalistās sigh that I received news that no team had transgressed last seasonās budget cap.
All 10 F1 teams have been given compliance certificates by the sport’s governing body
Hats off, though, to the FIA for the thoroughness with which they went about their auditing.
It was long argued that a budget cap was ungovernable. I am not naive enough to think other than every permitted trick is being pulled by all teams ingenious enough to devise ways of doing so, but for now the process is working well.
The downside is that performance disparities are set in aspic.
Imagine if Mercedes could spend, spend, spend; try this, try that. Same for Ferrari. They canāt, which is the major downside of a cost cap.
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