Stroll’s 100th qualifying defeat in 136 starts · RaceFans

The 2023 Formula 1 season was Lance Stroll’s seventh in the series. In that time his one-lap pace has been a clear weakness, whoever his team mate has been.

Fernando Alonso joined him at the start of the year as the fifth different full-time occupant of the seat alongside Stroll. He inflicted one of Stroll’s hardest qualifying defeats yet. In the process, at the United States Grand Prix, Stroll reached the unhappy landmark of 100 qualifying defeats to his assorted team mates in his 136th start.

Alonso followed Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Perez, Sergey Sirotkin and Felipe Massa in winning the qualifying contest against Stroll over a season. Nico Hulkenberg also qualified ahead of Stroll on two of his four appearances as a substitute alongside him. Only Paul di Resta, who made a single appearance alongside Stroll at the Hungaroring in 2017, drafted in as a substitute after Friday practice, didn’t manage to out-qualify him.

Stroll’s combined qualifying score against his team mates stands at 103-37 after 140 representative contests. That contrasts with the likes of Esteban Ocon, who has made a similar number of starts against two of the same drivers as Stroll, and is trailing 75-65. While Stroll lost 19-3 to Alonso this year, Ocon’s score against him over the previous two seasons at Alpine was a much closer 23-20 in Alonso’s favour.

The upshot of Stroll’s shortfall in one-lap pace is, of course, that he starts lower on the grid. That has been exacerbated this year by the tightness of the midfield, which Aston Martin fell deeper into as the season progressed. On average Alonso started sixth, Stroll 14th. The latter does at least have a reputation for making strong starts, Las Vegas this year being a case in point, but that is also a feature of starting too far down the grid in a car his team mates consistently demonstrate belongs closer to the front.

Starting further down the grid inevitably makes it harder to score points. “Stroll’s points shortfall could leave Aston Martin fifth instead of second this year,” noted RaceFans’ mid-season assessment of the Aston Martin pairing, and that is exactly what transpired. Alonso even hinted at it himself once the season was done, pointing out that with the fifth-highest scoring car their drivers mathematically belong ninth and 10th in the standings. Instead Alonso was fourth, Stroll 10th, having contributed little more than one-quarter of the team’s points tally. Beating Mercedes and Ferrari might…