Lance Stroll to Williams F1?

[cds_uk]

I have to be honest, i'm not a huge fan of young master Stroll, i am sure he will rack up the points for Williams next year, just as Max Chilton or Will Stevens would have if they had got a drive there. Money coming in for Williams can only be a good thing, he may well give Bottas the nudge he needs which is also a good thing, is Lance the next big thing or a new Max, absolutely not!

[NaBUru38]

I don't like F3 drivers jumping straight to F1. Anything less will seem a side move, rather than a step up.

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by tux

I dont expect Stroll will find it too hard, he will probably have done more hours in the simulator than any one.

Don't forget that Stroll snr is paying Williams millions to run Lance in a 3 year old F1 car at a large number of circuits this year to get F1 car experience, so in many ways he will be the best prepared driver in recent times.

[wnut]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I don't like F3 drivers jumping straight to F1. Anything less will seem a side move, rather than a step up.

I think all the drivers should come from F3 and they should do away with the myriad of junk formulae between F3 and F1. At worst it should be F3, F2 (F5000 would be good here) and F1.

Better to go back to old style tube frame FF style cars with various engines, followed by F3 and then F1, done.

All the current mess does is make it impossible for cars and drivers to contend more than one championship, and impossible to compare talents.

[morninggents]

I seem to recall a similar outcry against Max Verstappen but he appears to have made the grade.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I don't like F3 drivers jumping straight to F1. Anything less will seem a side move, rather than a step up.

I don't think it matters where a driver comes from as long as they are high extreemy high caliber and able to get the job done ..

[andrewc]

Its a calculated risk on both sides.

Williams need both drivers to score well to do well in constructors championship, and to get the financial rewards that success brings (because it also deprives rivals of money)

Stroll needs to do a decent job otherwise his career will be always be blighted as a kid with more money than talent. He could do a season in GP3 / GP2 or equivalence, but they are hoping that he has the talent to make the jump.

Having the financial backing helps.

Yes, he will make mistakes, he will have good weekends, he will have bad weekends, even the top drivers do that. He'll have to get used to a different level of media attention, and probably criticism from the media and supporters.

Whilst I am sure Prema will miss Stroll Snr's cheques, having been the team to beat for the past couple of seasons will mean they probably won't have too much problems attacting drivers, and coming back down to reality. Enjoy the sun whilst it shines, and reap the rewards...

[ASCII Man]

I see him as nothing more than another Pedro Diniz, to be honest.

[steve_r]

Perdro Diniz never won an F3 title. In fact he never even came close. But nevertheless did not disgrace himself in F1.

If you meant this as an insult to Stroll, then there a many many worse pay drivers to choose from.

[gert]

I'm going to give Lance Stroll the benefit of the doubt, and reserve judgement.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Imagine the scenario where a driver with the age and results of Lance Stroll were promoted to the Williams F1 team. The one difference being that he has a group of sponsors and his father is not well known and is able to bankroll a limited amount of his racing.

Would there be nothing but praise for the lad? Would we not see it as Williams signing a potential star of the future? Would the only thing we could knock Williams down for would be banking too much on inexperience? And could that point not be countered with praise for such a gamble given the junior formulae results of this driver?

It's quite pathetic really. I don't think he'd be near F1 had he have won a race in F3, got 6 podiums and finished 7th in the championship regardless of his dad's pockets.

And as for what Stroll can achieve in F1, only time will tell.

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by ASCII Man

I see him as nothing more than another Pedro Diniz, to be honest.

Seeing as Diniz went from pay driver to paid driver as well as garnering respect down the pit-lane, that isn't much of an insult.

[Mr Pink]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

Imagine the scenario where a driver with the age and results of Lance Stroll were promoted to the Williams F1 team. The one difference being that he has a group of sponsors and his father is not well known and is able to bankroll a limited amount of his racing.

Would there be nothing but praise for the lad? Would we not see it as Williams signing a potential star of the future? Would the only thing we could knock Williams down for would be banking too much on inexperience? And could that point not be countered with praise for such a gamble given the junior formulae results of this driver?

It's quite pathetic really. I don't think he'd be near F1 had he have won a race in F3, got 6 podiums and finished 7th in the championship regardless of his dad's pockets.

And as for what Stroll can achieve in F1, only time will tell.

Amen.
I haven't watched a lot of F3 this year but based on his results I see nothing strange about him joining an F1-team.

In my mind, the issue is when ability is replaced by money, not when it's complemented by it.

[BSchneiderFan]

Originally Posted by ASCII Man

I see him as nothing more than another Pedro Diniz, to be honest.

With the best will in the world, that's a ridiculous comparison. Stroll has won the Italian F4 championship, the Toyota Racing Series and now the European F3 title. Essentially, everything he's contested properly, he's won. Pedro Diniz isn't even in the same league.

[S griffin]

Stroll has just won an F3 title, Diniz never won anything, even though he did improve in F1

[ASCII Man]

It is actually an apt comparison, he has a tremendously rich family backing him, and is a handy driver. But he's not going to set the world on fire like some seem to be suggesting.


Also, it's rather denigrating to be automatically assumed to be insulting him.

[Moneyseeker]

By comparison, Lewis had millions spent on his junior career by McLaren and Mercedes and never sat in any thing but the best car in the best team as he came up the formulae. Ditto most of the recent Red Bull drivers. Would Ericsson have been sat in an F1 car for so long without the largesse of his backers?

To a certain extent many of the current drivers have been paid for on their way to and in F1. Clearly this is clouded when a father funds his son to that extent, as that makes it family patronage over corporate funding, but a dollar is a dollar as the saying goes.

I am looking forward to seeing how he goes and from my limited following of it, any Williams influence on his attitude and performance this year seem to have reaped rewards so far.

[NaBUru38]

I don't mind drivers buying seats, as long as they deserve them.

Being an F3 champion doesn't make you F1 material. F3 has 200hp and F1 has 700hp cars, there's no correlation.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I don't mind drivers buying seats, as long as they deserve them.

Being an F3 champion doesn't make you F1 material. F3 has 200hp and F1 has 700hp cars, there's no correlation.

I honestly believe there is more potential in Lance Stroll than in Jolyon Palmer. One is merely an F3 champion, the other is a GP2 champion.

Also, there is a correlation between F3 and F1. That's the entire point. If there was no correlation then wouldn't that make all junior formulae obsolete???

[Moneyseeker]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I don't mind drivers buying seats, as long as they deserve them.

Being an F3 champion doesn't make you F1 material. F3 has 200hp and F1 has 700hp cars, there's no correlation.

It always used to...look back at some of the past British F3 Champions....(not going back too far)

Piquet (2004)
Hakkinen
Herbert
Barrichello
Ricciardo
Nasr
Vergne
Sato
and some chap called Senna he did OK...

In fact some drivers (Damon Hill for example and Mark Blundell) never seemed to get on with F3 cars and did much better in big engined cars and many people would argue that for many years F3 cars were over gripped and under powered.

[AdrianM]

Originally Posted by NaBUru38

I don't mind drivers buying seats, as long as they deserve them.

Being an F3 champion doesn't make you F1 material. F3 has 200hp and F1 has 700hp cars, there's no correlation.

Strange thing to say. So to take what you're saying to the logical extreme you would have no problem with taking someone from the back of the F3 grid over the champion as what they did in F3 has no bearing at all on F1?

[chillibowl]

In fairness he isn't jumping into f1 straight from f3 as he has had something lIke 20 days testing in a 2014 Williams.

How they were able to run their old car in so many tests, and which engines or tires they used, still remains a mystery to me though. But it sounds like these tests were more than promotional test days.

If this is allowed, and given the recent ruless stability, why isn't Ferrari running their 2014 challenger non stop at their test track?

[Mike Harte]

Originally Posted by chillibowl

In fairness he isn't jumping into f1 straight from f3 as he has had something lIke 20 days testing in a 2014 Williams.

How they were able to run their old car in so many tests, and which engines or tires they used, still remains a mystery to me though. But it sounds like these tests were more than promotional test days.

If this is allowed, and given the recent ruless stability, why isn't Ferrari running their 2014 challenger non stop at their test track?

I don't believe that there are any rules that prohibit using older technology cars for their own purposes. I doubt that it would provide any better research results if they wanted to test new parts than running them in a wind tunnel or a simulator. And this seems to be born out by what is emerging from the latest Pirelli tests for their 2017 tyres.

And for all we know, Ferrari may well be running their older cars at Fiorina to help their junior drivers: I doubt that they would actually publicise the fact, and as they would be older machines, the media would have no interest.

[chillibowl]

still not sure where they would get the tires from though.

whether they would choose to publicize it or not is one thing but surely there would be some photo journo or fans out there taking pics of it?

and i think the F1 and auto industry media would have interest in it..thinking back to when Ferrari were alleged to have built a test car to house their turbo engines in. there was much media speculation and photos of what they were doing then.

anyways kind of unrelated to this topic but at the same time, (i guess my point was more) this is not the normal pattern with what we have seen or what we know about how a junior driver is developed.

not sure we can look at LS as simply an F3 graduate/champ. he seems to have already racked up more real world miles in an F1 car then all? of the recent official team test drivers/junior drivers over the last several years.

[jimclark]

Originally Posted by Mike Harte

I don't believe that there are any rules that prohibit using older technology cars for their own purposes. I doubt that it would provide any better research results if they wanted to test new parts than running them in a wind tunnel or a simulator. And this seems to be born out by what is emerging from the latest Pirelli tests for their 2017 tyres.

And for all we know, Ferrari may well be running their older cars at Fiorina to help their junior drivers: I doubt that they would actually publicise the fact, and as they would be older machines, the media would have no interest.