Lance Stroll has gone up in opposition to some robust workforce mates in his Components 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 attainable ambitions for the workforce he owns. For junior to play his function in that, he must not less than reveal enchancment alongside drivers who’re far more skilled than him and have been much more profitable than most.
That hasn’t all the time occurred. In 2022, his second 12 months alongside Sebastian Vettel, Stroll’s share of the workforce’s factors rating fell in comparison with the earlier season. And his problem solely obtained more durable when Vettel’s substitute arrived.
The competition between the 2 Aston Martin drivers in 2023 was probably the most one-sided on the grid. Fernando Alonso reached the rostrum eight instances, 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 workforce mate dwelling 14 instances within the 16 races the place each completed, and was thumped 19-3 in qualifying. Stroll scored simply 26% of the workforce’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 workforce, each drivers had to deal with a automotive which was far much less aggressive than they loved the 12 months earlier than. Podiums had been now not a critical prospect and by the tip of the season reaching the factors had develop into an achievement
Regardless of that, this was a barely higher season for the workforce’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 workforce 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 type of events got here in Australia, the place Alonso took the chequered flag earlier than his workforce 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 workforce’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 complete profession.
Final 12 months Aston Martin’s failure to beat McLaren to fourth place within the constructors’ championship might moderately be blamed on Stroll’s failure to get as a lot out of their automotive as Alonso did. The identical can’t be mentioned this 12 months: The AMR24 was by no means realistically going to complete larger than fifth within the championship.
Nonetheless, given how slender McLaren’s profitable 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
Total scores
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Head-to-head
Qualifying efficiency
Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Destructive worth: Stroll was quicker; Optimistic worth: Alonso was quicker
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