When Lance Stroll was rushed into Formula 1 at an early age, the inevitable flaws in his racecraft could be excused in the knowledge that he would surely improve over the years ahead.
There’s no doubt that the now 24-year-old’s prowess as a driver improved over his first five seasons in F1. But during his sixth season, he produced some of the best – and, regrettably, worst – moments as a grand prix driver.
Aston Martin impressed by being the very first team to unveil their genuine 2022 car prior to pre-season testing. But it quickly became apparent the AMR22 could have done with more time in the oven as the team ran towards the back in the opening rounds. Lacking the experienced Sebastian Vettel to guide them due to Covid, Stroll had to lead the team alongside stand-in Nico Hulkenberg.
So when Hulkenberg out-qualified Stroll in the opening round in Bahrain, it did not reflect too well on the driver who had spent the pre-season testing the brand new car.
He earned back some pride in the race, however, making his way up the order to finish a respectable 12th by the chequered flag, five places ahead of the team’s stand-in driver. Stroll even brought the AMR22 within an outside chance of scoring a point the next weekend in Jeddah, but that ended in the closing laps after a clash with Alexander Albon.
Vettel returned for Aston Martin in Australia and suffered what could generously be described as a disastrous weekend. Incredibly, however, Stroll somehow managed to match his team mate for sheer calamity over the same three days. He crashed at the end of final practice, adding to his mechanics’ already heavy workload, then in qualifying he showed zero awareness when he drove into Nicholas Latifi as the Williams looked to nip passed in on an out-lap, severely damaging both cars and a three place grid penalty.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
In the race, he earned another penalty for weaving while defending from Valtteri Bottas and was lucky not to be investigated yet again when he appeared to force the Alfa Romeo off the track at turn three. Stroll at least went some way to redeem himself at Imola where the took his first point of the season, but Vettel had already crossed the line two places ahead of him.
Stroll’s early season developed something of a Jekyll and Hyde pattern, where any weekend he achieved something of note, it was marred by some regrettable…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…