Lance Stroll ‘spoilt rich boy feeling’ claim as missing element proposed by F1 pundit

Dutch racer and pundit Tom Coronel says he gets the “spoilt rich boy feeling” with Lance Stroll and while he is a “really good” driver, the “fun factor” is missing.

Despite still being only 25, Stroll is now a veteran of the Formula 1 grid, having made his debut all the way back in 2017 with Williams. Since 2019, he has raced with the Silverstone-based team now known as Aston Martin, following his father Lawrence Stroll’s takeover of the bankrupt Force India squad.

Lance Stroll must find ‘sweet spot in himself’ to ‘flame’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Stroll has found his position on the F1 grid coming into question at various points in his career, the fact he races for his father’s team only fuelling such talk, with rumours even bubbling up that he could walk away from Formula 1 altogether, before a contract extension was announced until the end of 2026.

Coronel pointed to achievements like Stroll’s pole position at the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix as proof of his impressive talent, but for his career to really ignite, Coronel believes the Canadian must “hit that sweet spot in himself”, as “he doesn’t exude much fun”.

“He shows at times that he is there,” Coronel said of Stroll for Formule1.nl .

“Because of his father he drives at Aston Martin, we all know that, but I’ll never forget his pole in the rain in Turkey 2020. So you can do something then! That can’t be a lucky shot, because you leave a lot of top drivers behind you at that moment. And don’t forget, he has been F3 champion before.

“What it is with Lance Stroll above all is that he doesn’t exude much fun. I miss the fun factor with him. I am convinced that if he knows how to hit that sweet spot in himself, he could still go on to flame. But that is up to him.

“I think the guy really likes racing, but not all the fuss around it. As a professional racing driver, you have more pluses than minuses, but if you can’t swallow those minuses, I don’t think you should get those pluses.

“With him, I do have that spoilt rich boy feeling. While once again he is really good and certainly not a pancake.”

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F1 2024 has been a challenging season for the Aston Martin team, which finds itself isolated in P5 in the Constructors’ Championship , with P5 also their best result of the season, scored by Fernando Alonso in Saudi Arabia.

Stroll admitted that Aston Martin has taken a “wrong direction” with their development, as they strive to get back on course.

“We were there beginning of last year, I don’t think we were totally there – we weren’t winning races last year, we had a quick car and some podiums, and a lot of top fives and stuff, but I think we still know we need to grow as a team and be stronger and more robust,” Stroll told media including PlanetF1.com.

“I think, ultimately, we took a bit of a wrong direction in terms of development philosophy and didn’t, I think, kind of go down the right path, we went sort of down the wrong path.

“We’ve slowly been realising that more and more, and now it’s a matter of changing path and then giving it time to develop and get good again, by going down that different path.

“Again, I think it’s part of growing as a team, I think it’s part of learning as a team.

“Unfortunately, we’re paying the price now and we’re not where we want to be on track, in the position we want to be on track, but we keep pushing forward.”

Alonso has contributed 49 points to Aston Martin’s current F1 2024 total of 73, with Stroll providing the remaining 24.

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