[Team] Aston Martin Racing in 2023. One of the cars still has Alonso.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Skam85

Stroll was never close to being that bad.

I'd love to know your criteria for what is decent then!

A couple of fortunate podiums in 4 seasons?

[E.B]

I guess that seeing how fair RP is on treating their drivers equally, that given Sergio is now ahead in the championship he will now get first dibs on updates, in the same way Lance did previously for that reason..... Lance will happily wait two or three races to get his updates

*looks for tongue in cheek smiley*

[peebee2]

Anybody who thinks Perez hasn’t been significantly slowed down is ... simply wrong.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by peebee2

Anybody who thinks Perez hasn’t been significantly slowed down is ... simply wrong.

I disagree. Anyone who claims Racing Point are costing themselves points overall is...simply wrong.

Two can play at that game.

[S griffin]

I don't where all these claims have come from. Maybe the team see Stroll as the future, but there's nothing to suggest they are deliberately holding the other driver back. In my view a good car and a strong driver lineup is giving them results. It's ridiculous people seem to think otherwise

[peebee2]

Originally Posted by S griffin

I don't where all these claims have come from. Maybe the team see Stroll as the future, but there's nothing to suggest they are deliberately holding the other driver back. In my view a good car and a strong driver lineup is giving them results. It's ridiculous people seem to think otherwise

Is it any great secret that all new parts go to Stroll?

Anyone with eyes saw that they pitted Hulk at Silverstone for no reason at all.

[S griffin]

Maybe because they see Lance as the future? And let's not forget Silverstone was an unusual race due to the tyre situation, so it's not as simple as they pitted Hulk for no reason.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by peebee2

Is it any great secret that all new parts go to Stroll?

If you only have one set of parts then you can only give them to one driver. Giving parts to Stroll is not "holding Perez back". Otherwise you're also saying if they gave them to Perez that they are holding Lance back. Now if Racing Point accidentally shoved an extra 100kg of ballast in the car then it'd be holding Perez back.

Which is basically the point I'm trying to make. If Racing Point want the other car to be behind Lance, then there's better ways of doing it than making stupid strategy calls. If they really wanted Perez behind Stroll they'd just weigh the car down or something similar so he was. Or are we suggesting they're only going to be underhanded in a very specific way that makes them look very silly? And not underhanded in the way which would be undetectable and produce the results they want in a way that makes them look good?

I guess with Silverstone we're just ignoring tyres and lap times and all that good stuff.

[chunterer]

Why are you so sure that a lot of people are wrong in saying teams make strategy calls to favour a driver Akrapovic?

It's been happening since time began.

Remember the Ferrari years with Schumacher?

Hockenheim in 2010: 'Fernando is faster than you'?

Teams don't care if people think they are silly for certain decisions if it puts their cars in thee right order.

In many respects if they DON'T make a strategy call to favour a certain driver it can end up a lot worse. I.E Gilles v Didier; Jones v Reut; Alonso v Ham; Vettel v Webber.

[gert]

I don't think RP are holding back Perez. I think though that that they are giving a tiny advantage to Stroll: the new parts, the better qualifying slots, etc...

Holding back Perez would be stupid as that will only cost them champiobship points and money.

Right now, Stroll 6th and Perez 7th would suit them 'better' for them than the other way around, but they would not pit Perez just to put Stroll 6th and leave Perez in 9th.

As for Hulkenbergs stop at his previous race. He confirmed that there was a reason he needed to pit. A slow puncture I think.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by gert

I don't think RP are holding back Perez. I think though that that they are giving a tiny advantage to Stroll: the new parts, the better qualifying slots, etc...

Holding back Perez would be stupid as that will only cost them champiobship points and money.

Right now, Stroll 6th and Perez 7th would suit them 'better' for them than the other way around, but they would not pit Perez just to put Stroll 6th and leave Perez in 9th.

As for Hulkenbergs stop at his previous race. He confirmed that there was a reason he neede to pit. A slow puncture I think.

I really don't think that bothers RP at the moment. The focus is to make Lance as comfortable and look as decent as possible to justify the management decisions.

As I said a while back the scenario of signing a 4x WDC gives them lots of attention but also makes Lance look even better if he beats Seb. This looks a damn sight better than 2 experienced and quick journeymen beating him.

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Why are you so sure that a lot of people are wrong in saying teams make strategy calls to favour a driver Akrapovic?

It's been happening since time began.

Remember the Ferrari years with Schumacher?

Hockenheim in 2010: 'Fernando is faster than you'?

Teams don't care if people think they are silly for certain decisions if it puts their cars in thee right order.

In many respects if they DON'T make a strategy call to favour a certain driver it can end up a lot worse. I.E Gilles v Didier; Jones v Reut; Alonso v Ham; Vettel v Webber.

Because in these situations they swapped car positions around like for like. The team lost no points and the only outcome was the 2 drivers received a different amount of points.

In the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, Hulk was dropped 2 places - behind Albon. His tyres (along with Strolls) were also going off. RP split the strategy in the hope that the Hulk would be able to make up the time with new tyres and retake Albon. To believe that they swapped those cars around you need to believe that RPs tyres were fine, and that they were happy to sacrifice overall points to maybe gain Stroll some. What happened there is not directly comparable to swapping drivers around. If you have an example of where a team deliberately cost a driver multiple positions and came out worse overall to benefit the lead driver then I'd be happy to hear that one.

If it was a conspiracy, the net result was worse. So the conspiracy is that the team will sabotage itself to help Stroll?

That seems ridiculous. It seems far more likely it was a bad strategy call - especially given the tyre situation we'd witnessed for the weekends there.

[VIVA GT]

I'm not going to get too drawn into the minutae of this debate but just have to add this:
Lawrence Stroll is a very successful businessman who may be the figurehead of Racing Point but he doesn't own the whole thing personally. He has other shareholders & directors to answer to many who are also very successful businessmen. They will all be wanting the best result from the team/their business and I am sure would not allow for Lawrence Junior (to add emphasis) to be shown favour by deliberately hampering his team mate to ensure he gets worse results than he is capable of. I must admit that during his time at Williams I was totally unimpressed with Lance's pace and had personally marked him down as 'just a rich kid who had bought the drive'. Since he has been in the Racing Point I have had to readjust my opinions, I was genuinely impressed with the pace that he has shown this year and also realised how dire the Williams is/was (especially seeing how well Russell went in the Mercedes...)

[steve_r]

Conspiracy theorists are on the loose!

Racing Point badly want Stroll Jr to beat his team mate, so badly do they want this to happen that they have signed a 4 x world champion to partner Stroll next season.

Stroll is with the team next year but Perez is not, so I guess it stands to reason that Stroll is given the new parts first.

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by steve_r

Conspiracy theorists are on the loose!

Racing Point badly want Stroll Jr to beat his team mate, so badly do they want this to happen that they have signed a 4 x world champion to partner Stroll next season.

You don't stay a WDC for ever though.... As Vettel has very much shown.

[E.B]

Originally Posted by Aysedasi

You don't stay a WDC for ever though.... As Vettel has very much shown.

I must confess I ache next year hear the words "Sebastian, Lance is faster than you, do you understand?"

[Akrapovic]

Originally Posted by steve_r

Conspiracy theorists are on the loose!

Racing Point badly want Stroll Jr to beat his team mate, so badly do they want this to happen that they have signed a 4 x world champion to partner Stroll next season.

Stroll is with the team next year but Perez is not, so I guess it stands to reason that Stroll is given the new parts first.

Great point this one. If you just want Stroll ahead then you hire a driver with money who isn't very good. You don't pay Vettel money to do it.

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by VIVA GT

...Since he has been in the Racing Point I have had to readjust my opinions...

Same for me. Actually finding myself liking the kid now.

[Akrapovic]

Remember him shouting for help in the Williams? Kinda makes you wonder if he had a point back then.

[S griffin]

He was definitely parachuted into F1 before he was properly ready, and as a result really struggled at times. But he’s not F3 champion for nothing and as he has got more experience and a better car he seems more confident and the results are showing. Not suggesting he’s a Leclerc or a Verstappen, but definitely not a rich kid with more money than talent

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by E.B

I must confess I ache next year hear the words "Sebastian, Lance is faster than you, do you understand?"

That would be priceless.......

[cds_uk]

As far as i'm concerned Lance will never be more than an average driver, he's into his fourth season now, still regularly gets out qualified by whoever is his team mate, never put's his car higher up the grid than it should be, odd freak result granted. Having said that he doesn't make many mistakes and his dads cash/connections keep the team afloat, he is hardly the first person in F1 with those qualifications. He will never win an F1 title, there is an outside chance he may luck into a win. When all is said and done he is in arguably the third best car on the grid and sits 9th in the championship having missed a round, Perez is 5th having missed two rounds.

[E.B]

So Lance Stroll tested positive to Covid-19 on the day of the Eifel GP, flew home and self isolated and is now supposedly clear and planning to drive in Portugal this weekend. Hope he did not infect any of his bubble. Getting a positive result and jumping on a plane does not seem that responsible, but .....
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15...after-eifel-gp

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by E.B

So Lance Stroll tested positive to Covid-19 on the day of the Eifel GP, flew home and self isolated and is now supposedly clear and planning to drive in Portugal this weekend. Hope he did not infect any of his bubble. Getting a positive result and jumping on a plane does not seem that responsible, but .....
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/15...after-eifel-gp

There's two factors here.
A) There is a big difference between travelling through Frankfurt to get on an A330 and someone like Stroll's version of taking a plane home to Geneva.
B) The test was not carried out before the GP, but was carried out after he had arrived home.

Stroll's statement said: "I arrived at the Nurburgring after testing negative in the normal pre-race tests.
"On Saturday morning, I started to feel unwell and woke up with an upset stomach. I followed FIA (Covid) protocol and self-isolated in my motorhome and did not re-enter the paddock.
"I wasn't fit to race, so I went home early Sunday morning. As I was still feeling under the weather, I took a Covid test on Sunday evening.
"The next day, the results came back positive, so I stayed at home isolating for the next 10 days."

[chillibowl]

Originally Posted by crmalcolm

A) There is a big difference between travelling through Frankfurt to get on an A330 and someone like Stroll's version of taking a plane home to Geneva.

i get that his means may afford him the ability to do things differently, but i still dont like the optics of it.