Former F1 driver Christian Danner discussed the performance of the
Aston Martin driver
Lance Stroll after the fourth race weekend of the 2024 season at Suzuka.
Aston Martin is currently standing fifth in the Constructors' Championship with 33 points, just one point behind
Mercedes in P4.
The problem is that Lance Stroll collected only nine out of these 33 points. The Canadian driver has struggled to match his more experienced double World Champion teammate throughout the 2023 season.
Going into 2024, Stroll told Sky Sports
he was ready to "kick some butt." However, he hasn't been able to do that yet. As reported by motorsport-magazin.com, Christian Danner said:
"Lance Stroll is definitely not very consistently fast, although he's decently quick every now and then. Aston Martin has worked its way out of the midfield to near the front."
Aston Martin introduced an upgrade during the
2024 Japanese Grand Prix, and while it seemingly worked for
Fernando Alonso, who finished sixth, the Canadian driver didn't even finish inside the points. Danner continued:
"If you have a McLaren with you If you want to attack a Norris and a Piastri, then you don't just need one top pilot, but two."
"The question is of course justified: Can Lance Stroll do that? Because he's been driving long enough and he now knows the car inside and out. There's a little bit of upward development missing somewhere."
Lance's father,
Lawrence Stroll, made it clear that his goal is to make Aston Martin a championship-winning team, and so far, he has been making all the right moves.
The only thing that many experts mark as his weakness is the 25-year-old driver who, at the moment, just isn't performing at the desired level.
Danner fears that once Lance Stroll decides he doesn't want to race anymore, it might cause his father to lose interest in the team as well.
"The only thing that can happen is that Lance, who has never given the impression that he particularly enjoys being a racing driver, at some point comes up with the idea of saying, let's leave it alone."
"If this happens, Danner fears serious and, above all, unforeseeable consequences for the team due to the family structure: Because then it could of course also be the case that dad loses interest."